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Poll: 61% of Israelis do not trust Netanyahu's management of Gaza war

September 6, 2024 at 12:38 pm

Thousands of Israelis protesting against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for not signing the ceasefire agreement with Gaza in front of Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel on September 02, 2024. [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]

Sixty-one per cent of Israelis do not trust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s management of the war on the besieged Gaza Strip; or his ability to form a government if early elections are held, an opinion poll by Israeli public broadcaster Kan has revealed.

According to the poll, if early elections are held, Netanyahu’s Likud Party will win only 22 seats in the Knesset while the National Camp Party, headed by Benny Gantz, will win 23.

The poll showed that the Yesh Atid Party, headed by Yair Lapid and the Yisrael Beiteinu Party, headed by Avigdor Lieberman, would come in third place with 14 seats, followed by the Shas with ten seats, while Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party and the Labor-Meretz alliance would each get eight seats.

In contrast, the Hadash-Arab Change alliance and the United List would win five seats each, while the Religious Zionism Party, headed by Bezalel Smotrich, would win only four seats.

The poll showed that 53 per cent of Israelis support withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor to reach a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, while 29 per cent of respondents believe Israeli occupation forces should remain in the Philadelphi Corridor even if this leads to the failure of the deal. Eighteen per cent of the participants said they were “undecided” about the issue.

Asked about Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, half of the respondents said they do not trust him to manage the war compared to 37 per cent who  said they do.

Asked who they preferred to head the next government, 37 per cent of respondents said Gantz got their vote, while support for Netanyahu fell to 30 per cent compared to 36 percent in the previous poll conducted on 22 August.

The poll was conducted by the Kantar Institute online on 4 September and included 600 people aged 18 and over, with a margin of error of 4 per cent.

Smotrich: War will end after Hamas, Hezbollah eliminated