Americans in new poll divided on humanitarian aid to Palestinians

Lauren Sforza
·2 min read
523

Americans are divided on whether they support sending humanitarian aid to Palestinians amid Israel’s ongoing war with militant group Hamas in Gaza, according to a poll released this week.

The The Economist/YouGov survery found respondents were evenly split when it comes to whether the U.S. should increase, decrease or maintain the same amount of aid to Gaza — where millions of Palestinians have been displaced and have been lacking food, water and other necessary supplies.

Increasing humanitarian aid, decreasing humanitarian aid and maintaining the same levels of aid each received 25 percent of support from Americans surveyed. Another 24 percent said they were unsure about the issue.

The difference was more defined when broken down by political affiliation. Roughly 44 percent of Democrats supported increased aid to Gaza, while just 9 percent of Republicans said the same. In contrast, 41 precent of Republicans said they want to see the U.S. decrease aid to the territory, compared with 10 percent of Democrats.

Similar shares of each party said they supported maintaining the same levels of aid to Gaza, with 31 percent of Republicans and 26 percent of Democrats saying as much.

The poll also found that Americans were more likely to sympathize with the Israelis instead of the Palestinians in the conflict.

About 37 percent of respondents said their sympathies were with Israelis, 14 percent said theirs were with Palestinians and 26 percent said they are about equal. Another 24 percent said they were unsure.

The survey was conducted Jan. 14-16 among 1,660 adult U.S. citizens. It has a margin of error of about 3 percentage points.

The Israel-Hamas war began last October after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and took another 240 people hostage in a surprise attack. Since then, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has said more than 24,000 people have been killed in Israel’s subsequent counterattacks.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.