Gallup: 55% of Americans Disapprove of Israel's Military Campaign in Gaza, Up Sharply Since November

The Numbers

When Gallup first polled on Israel's Gaza campaign in November 2023, Americans narrowly backed the military action. By the time the March 1-20 survey closed, that had reversed. Fifty-five percent disapprove. Thirty-six percent approve.

The shift cuts across all three major partisan groups, according to Gallup. Republicans dropped 7 points in approval, from 71% to 64%. Independents fell 18 points and went from divided to opposed. Democrats, already critical in November, dropped another 18 points. Now they sit at 75% disapproval and only 18% approval.

The AP-NORC polling conducted around the same period tracked a parallel trend, with Democrats growing increasingly critical of Israel's conduct and, by extension, U.S. policy toward the conflict.

What's Driving It

The Gallup data is clear on the backdrop: tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths, the destruction of major portions of Gaza, and sustained international pressure for a ceasefire, including from the Biden administration at the time and the United Nations. Large sections of Gaza's civilian infrastructure had been reduced to rubble, making humanitarian aid delivery difficult to nearly impossible in some areas.

Seventy-four percent of Americans said they were following the conflict closely as of that March survey, almost identical to the 72% Gallup recorded in November. This wasn't a case of an inattentive public drifting toward opposition. People watching closely were moving against the campaign too.

The Opposing Concern, Stated Fairly

Supporters of Israel's military campaign make a serious argument that deserves to be heard on its own terms. Israel suffered the deadliest attack on Jewish civilians since the Holocaust on October 7, 2023. Hamas deliberately embedded military infrastructure in civilian areas, hospitals, and tunnel networks beneath densely populated neighborhoods. This documented strategy was designed to make any military response generate civilian casualties and international condemnation. From this view, poll disapproval driven by graphic images of destruction reflects Hamas's intended propaganda effect more than a sober judgment of whether Israel had a legitimate right to defend itself and dismantle the organization that carried out that attack. Republican approval holding at 64%, even after a 7-point drop, reflects this thinking.

The Political Fallout

For the Biden administration, the March 2024 Gallup numbers represented a specific political liability. Biden's approval rating on his handling of the Israel-Palestinian situation sat at 27%, the lowest of five issues tested in that Gallup survey. His numbers on the economy, environment, energy policy, and foreign affairs broadly all scored higher among his own Democrats. Only 47% of Democrats approved of his Israel handling, compared to no less than 66% on every other tested issue.

That gap between how Democrats viewed Biden generally versus how they viewed his Middle East posture specifically was a measurable fracture heading into an election year.

What the Polls Don't Settle

Public opinion surveys measure how people feel about a military campaign. They don't resolve the harder questions: whether a government facing what Israel faced in October 2023 had viable alternatives to a ground invasion, how much of the civilian casualty toll was operationally avoidable, and what political settlement, if any, could emerge from the rubble. The Gallup data is a temperature reading, not a strategy.

The Gallup survey was also completed before the UN Security Council passed a ceasefire resolution for Ramadan, a resolution that cleared only because the United States abstained rather than vetoing it, breaking with its prior pattern of blocking such measures. Whether that abstention reflected a genuine policy shift or a political calculation responding to the polling numbers it was already seeing internally remains an open question.