Half of Britons say Israel’s actions in Gaza are unjustified
Israel has come in for renewed criticism over its actions in Gaza in recent weeks, with suggestions that it is intentionally starving Palestinians in the territory, and deliberately killing people as they try to collect aid.
Such actions, and those over the past years since the October 2023 terrorist attacks by Hamas, have now resulted in frustrated western leaders like Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer and most recently Canadian prime minister Mark Carney suggesting that they will recognise Palestine as an independent state. Recent YouGov data on the question of recognising Palestinian statehood finds that Britons support recognition by a rate of more than three to one, although the public are more divided on the conditions.
With this renewed focus on the conflict and the suffering in Gaza, has public opinion shifted as a result?
New YouGov tracking data finds that, in fact, only relatively small changes in public sentiment on key Gaza questions have occurred, if any.
When it comes to which side the public sympathise most with, there has been a five-point increase in ‘the Palestinian side’ since May, to 37%. This is the highest level since the conflict began, and coincides the number saying “both equally” reaching its lowest level of 17% (down four points from the previous poll).
The number of Britons saying they sympathise most with the Israelis stands at 15%, about the same as it was in May, while 31% say “don’t know”.
When it comes to specific sympathy for each side, there has been a seven point increase in the number saying they sympathise with the Palestinians “a great deal”, up to 35%. With a further 27% saying that they sympathise “somewhat”, the combined sympathy total is 62%, up six points from the last time we asked this question in September 2024, just before the one year anniversary of the conflict – although this brings the data more closely back into line with previous polling from November 2023.
On sympathy for the Israelis, the 14% with “a great deal” of sympathy and the 31% who sympathise “somewhat” are broadly similar to the same results from September, with the biggest difference being the four point increase in the number saying they don’t sympathise with the Israelis “at all” (to 30%).
These figures are, by contrast, significantly reduced from the November 2023 polling.
Do the British public see Israel’s actions in Gaza as justified?
Attitudes towards the justification of Israel’s actions in Gaza since the October 2023 attacks remain largely the same as our May poll. Half of Britons (51%) consider Israel’s actions over the last 22 months to be unjustified, a four point decrease.
At the same time, the one in five Britons (21%) who feel Israel’s actions are justified compares to 18% in May.
Our more detailed question on this subject points in a slightly different direction. The 11% who think that Israel’s actions both then and now are justified remains within one point of the May poll, while the number saying that they were initially right to do so, but have since gone too far, has risen four points to 42%.
Only 13% think Israel was wrong to take military action at all, largely the same as our previous poll.
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Photo: Getty
