64% of Israelis believe there are ‘no innocents’ in Gaza: Poll

JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL

Some 64% of Israelis believe that “there are no innocents” in Gaza, signaling a surge in extremist views in Israeli society, a new survey found on Wednesday.

The survey by the Hebrew University’s aChord Center showed that 87% of supporters of the ruling coalition see “no innocents” in the Palestinian enclave.

The poll also found that 73% of voters for opposition leader Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu Party and other right-wing, non-coalition parties have the same view.

It revealed that support among centrist voters stood at 67%, while 30% of left-wing voters agreed. In contrast, 92% of Arab citizens of Israel rejected this view.

The poll also examined public attitudes toward media coverage of the Israeli war in Gaza. It found that 64% of Israelis said domestic media coverage was balanced and did not require broader reporting on the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave.

Among coalition voters, 89% held that view, while among opposition voters, only 44% agreed, with 56% of the latter calling for broader coverage.

Regarding specific outlets, 39% of respondents viewed Channel 14, widely seen as supportive of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as providing balanced Gaza coverage, while 56% said it is biased against Gazans and 5% claimed it favors them.

According to Haaretz newspaper, Channel 14 has systematically labeled all Gaza casualties as “terrorists and, on multiple occasions, praised the killing or harming of civilians.”

On international media, 69% of respondents considered CNN and BBC biased toward Palestinians in Gaza, while 50% viewed Fox News, associated with the American right, as similarly biased, Haaretz said.

Additionally, 77% of participants said, “global public opinion about Israel is very or somewhat important,” according to the poll.

The survey was conducted in the final week of May and included a representative sample of 1,112 Israeli respondents.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing over 55,100 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

As Israel has continued to close all Gaza’s border crossings to humanitarian aid since early March, aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.