Australia “abstained with great disappointment” on a United Nations general assembly resolution that called on Israel to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories within 12 months, the Australian ambassador said.

Despite casting an abstain vote on Thursday morning, the Australian ambassador to the UN, James Larsen, said Australia “supports many of the principles of this resolution” and was “already doing much of what it calls for”.

The Australian government had been pressing for amendments to the Palestinian-drafted resolution and expressed disappointment that negotiators had refused to accept further changes.

The resolution – which sought to act on a recent advisory opinion of the international court of justice – demanded that Israel “brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

It was carried with 124 votes in favour and 14 against. Australia was one of 43 countries to abstain, including the UK, Canada and Germany.

Several countries seen as close partners of Australia – New Zealand, Japan, France and Ireland – voted yes to the resolution.

Addressing the UN, Larsen said Australia was “resolute in advancing the cause of peace around the world, including the urgent need for a two-state solution in the Middle East”.

He said Australia was also “a resolute defender of international law” and wanted to vote for a resolution that “directly reflected” the ICJ’s advisory opinion.

“That is why we abstained with great disappointment,” Larsen said.

“We are concerned that, by making demands of the entire UN membership that go beyond the scope of the advisory opinion, the resolution distracts from what the world needs Israel to do.”

The sweeping resolution included a call for all countries to “implement sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against natural and legal persons engaged in the maintenance of Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in relation to settler violence”.

The resolution also called on countries to “take steps towards ceasing the importation of any products originating in the Israeli settlements, as well as the provision or transfer of arms, munitions and related equipment to Israel, the occupying Power, in all cases where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

UN general assembly resolutions are not legally binding, but they provide a strong signal of global opinion.

The ICJ said in an advisory opinion in July that Israel’s “sustained abuse” of its position as an occupying power had rendered its presence in the territories it seized in the six-day war in 1967 – East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza – as “unlawful”.

Larsen said the occupation “must be brought to an end, such that we see security for Palestinians, for Israel, and for the region”.

He said Israel “must cease settlement activity”. Australia, he said, had also “sanctioned extremist Israeli settlers because they must be held to account for their violence”.

Reiterating a policy shift first foreshadowed in May, Larsen said Australia had “moved” its position on recognising Palestinian statehood.

“We now see recognition as an integral part of a peace process, and as a way to contribute meaningfully towards the realisation of a two-state solution,” Larsen said.

“It’s a matter of when, not if. It’s the only way to break the cycle of violence – the only hope for a prosperous future for both peoples – [to have] a Palestinian state and the State of Israel, side by side, behind secure borders.”

Larsen ended by saying the situation in Gaza was “catastrophic” and “international law is under strain” with “the region is on the brink of escalation”. He renewed Australia’s calls for an immediate ceasefire.

The Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, told ABC Radio National that Australia “would have liked to have been in a position to vote for a resolution that more directly reflected the ICJ advisory opinion”.

When asked about Israel’s claim that the resolution rewarded Hamas for its attacks, Wong said: “Our position is that the October 7 attacks were an atrocity. What we also have said is that we want to see a ceasefire: 10,000 Palestinian children have been killed in this conflict.”

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said the UN resolution was “an invitation to endless war and bloodshed” and came at a time when Israel was “once again under a ferocious multi-front attack”.

“The resolution will stand as a monument to the moral abyss into which the UN has sunk,” the ECAJ co-chief executive, Peter Wertheim, said.

“Australia should have had no part of it. It should have voted no instead of taking the morally cowardly way out and abstaining.”

The Zionist Federation of Australia said: “By abstaining, Australia distances itself from its natural ally – the United States – who stood with Israel in this critical moment by voting against this motion.”