Poll: 40% of Israelis back Biden’s ceasefire proposal for Gaza

FILE: President Joe Biden delivers remarks on Artificial Intelligence, and announces voluntary commitments from leading tech companies towards developing responsible AI, Friday, July 21, 2023, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz via President Joe Biden/Facebook)

JERUSALEM – Some 40 percent of Israelis support a proposal announced late last week by US President Joe Biden that he said could lead to a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, according to a poll conducted by the Israeli Broadcasting Authority.

However, the public broadcaster reported that nearly 27 percent of respondents opposed the deal and around 33 percent were undecided.

The survey also found that around 42 percent of Israelis believe the Palestinian group Hamas’s rule in the Gaza Strip cannot be eliminated. At the same time, 32 percent said Israel was capable of doing so.

It further revealed that 55 percent of Israelis “support expanding the confrontation with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.”

The sample included 605 Israelis over 18, with a margin of error of slightly above 4 percent.

On Friday, Biden said Israel presented a three-phase deal that could end hostilities in the Gaza Strip and secure the release of hostages held in the coastal enclave.

He called on Hamas to accept the proposal and urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resist pressure from members of his governing coalition to reject the plan.

Netanyahu’s office, however, on Friday reiterated his intention to continue Israel’s deadly offensive in Gaza until all of its war goals are achieved.

Hamas said it would “respond positively to any proposal that includes a permanent ceasefire, a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, reconstruction efforts, the return of the displaced and the completion of a comprehensive hostage exchange deal.”

More than 36,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a deadly Israeli offensive since Oct. 7 last year following a cross-border incursion by Hamas into Israel.

The majority of those killed have been women and children, with over 82,600 others injured, according to local health authorities. (Anadolu)