Summary
- 79% Israeli Jews not troubled by the Gaza famine.
- The majority believe Israel tries to avoid civilian
harm.
- 86% Palestinian citizens of Israel are concerned about
suffering.
- Political divide on views of suffering and responsibility.
- Israelis mostly trust military casualty reports; Arabs skeptical.
According to the survey, 86 percent of
"Arab" respondents were somewhat or very upset by the stories of the
conflict in Gaza, whereas 79 percent of Israeli Jews were either not troubled
at all or not troubled at all.
Palestinian Israeli citizens are referred to as
"Arab" by poll participants.
When the question is broken down by political affiliation, it reveals that the left is much
more concerned about hunger and suffering (70 percent), while the center and
right are only 32 percent and 6 percent personally troubled by the reports,
respectively.
The survey was carried out from July 27 to July
31.
The world’s leading hunger monitoring system last week issued a warning that the “worst-case scenario of famine” is unfolding in Gaza due to the Israeli-imposed starvation and siege.
“Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City,”
the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security
Phase Classification said in its report.
Since Israel's invasion of Gaza started in
October 2023, at least 150 Palestinian adults and children have died of famine
in Gaza, prompting the warning.
The low percentage of Israelis concerned about
famine and misery in Gaza may be associated with the amount of individuals who
believe the Israeli army’s reports on the extent of the civilian casualties in
Gaza.
While the large majority of Israeli Palestinian
residents, 63 percent, do not accept the Israeli army's statistics on the
number of civilian dead in Gaza, a resounding majority of Israeli Jews, 70
percent, do.
Only 40% of Israelis are positive about the
country's security, and only 38% are positive about democratic
governance.
Just 28% of respondents were positive about the
nation's economic prospects, and only 23% were optimistic about national
cohesion, which had the lowest level of optimism.
The authors claim that compared to Israeli Jews,
a much smaller percentage of Palestinian Israeli citizens are optimists.
The report's authors caveat this section, saying,
"However, as the figure below shows, this does not constitute a new crisis, as these declines have essentially restored the situation that existed two and three months ago; thus, it is possible that the previous month’s finding was anomalous."
Bennett, the New Right Party's 2021–2022 prime
minister, charged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for making Israel
"a leper state."
According to Bennet, supporters of the Make
America Great Again movement are turning away from Israel, saying that its allies
are finding it difficult to defend it in light of the continued famine in
Gaza.
Bennet's evaluation of Israel's standing in the
US is accurate, according to recent data.
According to fresh Gallup polling data released
recently, only 32% of Americans say they favor Israel's attack on Gaza, a
stunning 10 percentage point decline since a poll conducted in September 2024.
52 percent of Americans said they see Netanyahu
negatively as of July 2025, and 60 percent said they disapprove of Israel's
military action—a dramatic change from a year and a half ago.
Gallup noted a "continued deterioration in
his image" and added that Netanyahu had never been seen this negatively in
any of its prior surveys going back to the 1990s.
How might Israel's agreement to match the US donation influence aid distribution in Gaza?
Israel's agreement to match the US donation for
Gaza humanitarian aid is likely to influence aid distribution by reinforcing a
system where Israel oversees or heavily controls the delivery
infrastructure.
This arrangement aims to ensure that aid reaches
civilians directly without being diverted to Hamas, which Israel alleges has
stolen and misused aid in the past, though these claims lack public proof and
are disputed by humanitarian organizations.
Specifically, the aid distribution is planned to
be managed through new, internationally governed but Israel-backed compound
sites in Gaza, where families receive limited, weekly aid packages designed to
reduce Hamas's leverage and governance power.