A strong majority of Israelis say the time has come to end the war in Gaza. A survey conducted for the second anniversary of the October 7 attack by the Israel Democracy Institute found 66% of Israelis want to end the war, up 13 percentage points since this time last year.
Almost as many - 64% - think Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu should take responsibility for Oct. 7 and resign, either now (45%) or after the war (19%).
While support for ending the war is strongest among left-wing voters (95%) and centre-voters (75%), even almost half of right-wing voters (49%) say it's time to end the war.
About half of the Jews who said that the war should be ended gave the reason that continuing the fighting endangers the hostages, while among Arabs who think the war should be stopped, only about a third gave this as the main reason.
Israelis are less concerned about harm to the residents of Gaza with only 2% of Jews surveyed and 17.5% of Arab Israelis surveyed giving this as their reason for why the war should end.
Although Netanyahu has emphasised his main aim for the war is defeating Hamas, 65% of Israelis think the main goal should be the bringing the hostages home, a percentage that has risen steadily since January 2024.
Other key findings from the survey include:
- The public is evenly divided regarding whether the war has improved or worsened Israel’s security situation: 43% think that the current situation is better, 44% think it is worse. Only 7% think it has not changed.
- Most Israelis (75%) think Israel’s standing in the international arena is worse today than it was before October 7.
- Almost three-quarters of Jewish Israelis (72%) think that the Palestinian people do not have the right to a state of their own, an increase of 11 percentage points from last year. The majority of Arab Israelis (58%) think the Palestinian people have a right to a state but this percentage has fallen noticeably from a level of 89% a year ago.
- Israelis are more concerned than they were a year ago about a full scale multi-front war or an Iranian nuclear attack and less concerned about international standing or the loss of American support.
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