UK foreign secretary suggests Israeli minister could face sanctions over Gaza camp plans

WASHINGTON: Support for Israel’s military action in Gaza has declined substantially among US adults, with only about one-third approving, according to a new Gallup poll – a drop from the beginning of the war with Hamas, when about half of Americans approved of Israel’s operation.

The new polling also found that about half of US adults now have an unfavorable view of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the most negative rating he has received since he was first included in Gallup polling in 1997. The poll was conducted from July 7-21, while reports of starvation in Gaza led to international criticism of Israel’s decision to restrict food aid but before President Donald Trump expressed concern over the worsening humanitarian situation.

The findings underscore the Israeli government’s dramatic loss of support within the US. But not everyone is shifting – instead, the war has become more politically polarizing. The rising disapproval is driven by Democrats and independents, who are much less likely to approve of Israel’s actions than they were in November 2023, just after Israel expanded its ground offensive in Gaza.

Republicans, on the other hand, remain largely supportive of both Israel’s military actions and Netanyahu.

Most Americans now disapprove of Israeli military action in Gaza

The new poll finds that about 6 in 10 US adults disapprove of the military action Israel has taken in Gaza, up from 45 percent in November 2023.

Support for the war has been dwindling in Gallup’s polling for some time. In March 2024, about half of US adults disapproved of Israel’s military action in Gaza, which fell slightly as the year wore on.

In a new low, only 8 percent of Democrats and one-quarter of independents say they now approve of Israel’s military campaign. Some of that decline may be attributed to the change in administration. While former President Joe Biden faced significant pushback from fellow Democrats on his handling of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, they may be even more frustrated by the approach of Trump, a Republican.

Young adults are also much more likely to disapprove of Israel’s actions. Only about 1 in 10 adults under age 35 say they approve of Israel’s military choices in Gaza, compared with about half of those who are 55 or older.

Gallup senior editor Megan Brenan says the latest figures reflect the enduring partisan divide. Even as Democrats grow increasingly unhappy with Israel’s military campaign, Republicans remain supportive.

“We’ve seen this drop in approval since last fall, and it’s really driven by Democrats and independents,” Brenan says. “Republicans are still willing to be in this for the time being.”

Netanyahu’s favorability among US adults is historically low

Views of Netanyahu have also grown less favorable over the past few years, with more viewing him negatively than positively in measurements taken since the war in Gaza began.

About half of US adults, 52 percent, now have an unfavorable view of Netanyahu in the new poll, which overlapped with Netanyahu’s recent visit to the US Just 29 percent view him positively, and about 2 in 10 either haven’t heard of him or don’t have an opinion.

That’s a change – although not a huge one – since December 2023, when 47 percent of US adults had an unfavorable view of Netanyahu and 33 percent had a favorable opinion. But it’s a reversal from as recently as April 2019, when more US adults viewed him positively than negatively.

Republicans have a much more positive view of Netanyahu than Democrats and independents do. About two-thirds of Republicans view him favorably, which is in line with last year. About 1 in 10 Democrats and 2 in 10 independents feel the same way.

“This is the first time we’ve seen a majority of Americans, with an unfavorable view of him,” Brenan says. “All of these questions in this poll show us basically the same story, and it’s not a good one for the Israeli government right now.”

Trump is unlikely to face the same pressure on his approach to Israel

More than half of US adults, 55 percent, disapprove of Trump’s handling of the situation in the Middle East, according to a July AP-NORC poll.

But the conflict has not weighed as heavily on Trump as it did on Biden, who watched Democrats splinter on the issue. That’s because of Trump’s solid support from his base on this issue, further reflected in Republicans’ continued approval of Israel’s military action. About 8 in 10 Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the situation in the Middle East. By contrast, only about 4 in 10 Democrats approved of Biden’s handling of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians last summer, shortly before he dropped out of the presidential race.

In an AP-NORC poll from March, Republicans were significantly more likely than Democrats and independents to say they sympathized more with the Israelis than with the Palestinians in the conflict.

And while Americans overall were more likely to say it was “extremely” or “very” important for the United States to provide humanitarian relief to Palestinians in Gaza than to say the same about providing aid to Israel’s military, Republicans said the opposite – more saw military aid to Israel as a higher priority than providing humanitarian relief to the Palestinians in Gaza.

BEIRUT: A Lebanese court sentenced a man to death in absentia for killing an Irish United Nations peacekeeper, a judicial official said Tuesday, after Hezbollah members were accused of involvement in the 2022 incident.

Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed and three others were wounded after a UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) convoy came under fire on December 14, 2022 in south Lebanon, long a stronghold of the Iran-backed militant group.

The judicial official, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media, said Lebanon’s military court issued its ruling in the case at around midnight on Monday.

The court “imposed the death sentence... on the main defendant, Mohammad Ayyad,” the official said, adding that the ruling was issued in absentia.

A security source told AFP in December 2022 that Hezbollah had handed Ayyad over to the army that month.

But he was released from custody in November 2023 “for health reasons” and had not appeared at any trial session since, the official said Tuesday.

The military court also handed a combination of fines and lighter custodial sentences to four other people “who handed themselves in to the court hours before the session” and acquitted a fifth, the official said.

Skirmishes occur occasionally between UNIFIL patrols and Hezbollah supporters, but they rarely escalate and are generally quickly contained by Lebanese authorities.

In June 2023 a judicial official told AFP that five Hezbollah members were accused of killing Rooney.

A Hezbollah official had denied members of the group were involved.

UNIFIL, which counts around 10,000 peacekeepers from nearly 50 countries, acts as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel and operates in the south near the border.