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MOST ISRAELIS, INCLUDING ON THE RIGHT, BACK HOSTAGE DEAL THAT ENDS
GAZA WAR, POLL SHOWS  
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Linda Dayan
September 3, 2025
Haaretz
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_ A new Israel Democracy Institute survey reveals 64.5 percent of
Israelis, including half of the surveyed Likud voters, favor a
cease-fire and hostage deal that includes IDF withdrawal from Gaza. _

An IDF soldier standing atop the turret of tank at the Israeli border
with Gaza on September 2, 2025., Photo credit: Menachem Kahana/Agence
France-Presse (AFP) // Haaretz

 

The majority of Israelis, even among the country's right-wing, support
a deal that would include an end to the Gaza war, the release of all
hostages in Hamas captivity and the withdrawal of IDF troops from the
Strip, a poll released by the Israel Democracy Institute shows.

According to the poll [[link removed]], which
was conducted between August 24 and 28, 64.5 percent of all Israelis
believe that Israel should agree to such a deal
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with 62 percent of Jews and 81 percent of Arab respondents indicating
they are "certain that Israel should" or "think that Israel should"
agree to these terms.

Among left-wing respondents, 92 percent said that Israel should agree
to this deal, but even among voters for right-wing parties, support
was high. Fifty-two percent of Likud
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said that Israel should sign a deal that includes a hostage release, a
cease-fire and Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza. More than half of
United Torah Judaism and Shas voters also support a deal.

Only one party – Religious Zionism, led by Finance Minister Bezalel
Smotrich
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had less than half of its voters say they would support such an
agreement, with 23 percent.

 
Hostage families and their supporters marching for a release deal in
Jerusalem on September 3, 2025.  (Photo credit: Olivier Fitoussi /
Haaretz)
In other polls, including a Channel 12 survey from July, higher rates
of respondents said that they support a cease-fire and hostage release
deal – up to 74 percent. When asked by Haaretz, researchers from
the Israel Democracy Institute
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that the discrepancy could be due to the way that the question was
asked, noting that their poll included a complete withdrawal of IDF
troops
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Gaza, a factor others did not. Other polls may also have been
conducted solely online without calling respondents by telephone, as
the Haredi sector
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less likely to use the internet.

More than half of Israelis – 53 percent – also believe that the
government is not making every effort to bring the hostages home, the
IDI poll found.

In addition, the poll found that most Israelis oppose Jewish
settlement in Gaza, with 53 percent of Israeli Jews and 86.5 percent
of Arabs saying that the Strip should not be resettled. The institute
notes that Haredi respondents were most likely to support the idea: 75
percent of Haredi respondents back Jewish settlement in the Strip
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compared to just 21 percent of secular Israelis.

Israelis are split, though, regarding the cabinet's decision to expand
the military operations in Gaza, including the plan to reoccupy the
Strip. This plan has been denounced by the families
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the 48 remaining hostages, who say that broadening the war endangers
the living captives and will only make it more difficult to recover
the remains of the dead. Forty-nine percent of Israelis – 42.5
percent of Jews and 81.5 percent of Arabs – oppose the measure,
while 42 percent of the total sample support it.

 
A makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians near Gaza City's
port on September 1, 2025.  (Photo credit: Jehad Alshrafi/AP  //
 Haaretz)
Prof. Tamar Hermann of the IDI notes that some of the responses may
seem counterintuitive. "There is a substantial share of Israelis who
support a hostage deal that involves a full withdrawal from Gaza while
also saying they support the expansion of fighting in Gaza," she says.
"This is due to the context-specific nature of each question – many
Israelis prioritize bringing the hostages home even at a great cost,
but if a deal cannot be struck, they support the expansion of
operations in Gaza."

As for who should govern Gaza
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the war is over, the largest share of Israelis – 44 percent of Jews
and 22 percent of Arabs – think that a multinational force should
run the Strip. The second-most favored option among Arabs is the
Palestinian Authority, and among Jews it is Israel.

The poll was prepared by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion
and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute, over the
internet and telephone. They polled 600 people over the age of 18 in
Hebrew and 150 in Arabic, with a maximum sampling error of plus or
minus 3.58 percentage points at a confidence level of 95 percent.

_[LINDA DAYAN is a Haaretz correspondent covering Israeli society,
culture and the Jewish world.]_

* Ceasefire
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* Hostages
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* Hamas
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* Oct. 7
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* Hostage release talks
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* Gaza
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* Palestinian prisoners
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* Israel
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* Palestine
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* Palestinians
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* Israel-Gaza War
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* Genocide
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* war crimes
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* Benjamin Netanyahu
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* IDF
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* U.S.-Israel military aid
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* Israeli peace movement
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