Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mélanie Joly, has told reporters that the country would pause future arms sales to Israel following a non-binding vote in the House of Commons.

Joly, told the Toronto Star that stopping future arms shipments “is a real thing.”

The announcement comes following a vote on a motion tabled by the New Democratic Party (NDP), which is supporting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority government.

The party called on the Liberal Party to stop future arms exports to Israel.

The motion passed with 204 vote to 117 with the support of Liberals, Bloc Québécois and the Green Party late on Monday.

Reacting to the vote, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said it was “misguided and disingenuous.”

In a statement the group said: “It will not effectively address the humanitarian crisis. It will not liberate Gazans from the tyrannical rule of the Iranian proxy, Hamas. It will not promote peace.

“It is shameful that the Liberal government has drawn moral equivalence between Israel, a declared democratic ally, and Hamas, a Canadian government-listed terrorist entity.”

The motion also called on the Canadian government to work “towards the establishment of the state of Palestine”.

Prime Minster Trudeau has said Israel has a right to defend itself however he has been critical of its response to the Hamas massacre on October 7.

Campaign group Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East said the vote was a “small step forward for ending Canadian complicity in Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza”.