Support for Israel's war on Gaza has dropped in Europe, poll finds

More than a third of respondents in the UK believe conflict has 'gone too far', with about half saying attacks on Lebanon are 'not justified'

Pro-Palestine protesters attend a rally outside the US embassy in London. The majority of respondents in a European poll say more should be done to restrain Israel. Getty Images

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Israel faces diminished support among people in Europe after more than a year of conflict in the Middle East, with a poll showing almost half want their governments to oppose a potential Israeli war with Iran.

About 50 per cent of respondents in France, the UK and Germany said they believed Israeli attacks on Lebanon were "not justified", the YouGov poll found. In the UK, 37 per cent believed Israel had “gone too far and caused too many civilian casualties” in Gaza. Across the survey, more than a third of people who once supported Israel’s war on Gaza have now changed their minds.

The polling yielded similar results in Germany – one of Israel’s staunchest allies in the war – where 38 per cent of respondents said they had changed their mind about Israel’s conduct in the region.

Overall, more than half of those in the UK (52 per cent) believed Israel was right to send troops into Gaza in response to the October 7 attacks, with similar figures reported in other countries. Only 15 per cent believed Israel continued to act in a proportionate way after the Hamas-led attacks, in which 1,200 people in Israel were killed.

About 43,400 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, health authorities in the enclave said.

In France, 26 per cent of respondents had stopped supporting the war, but a higher proportion (20 per cent) said Israel was wrong to send troops from the start.

The poll surveyed people in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Sweden and Italy at a time when each government is growing more critical of Israel. French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a full arms embargo on Israel, while the UK imposed a partial ban in September for weapons used in Gaza.

Europeans were found to have a largely unfavourable view of Israel, but also expressed little support for Palestine. In the UK, more than half of those polled (51 per cent) said they did not support Israel, while less than half 44 per cent) said they did not support Palestine.

In Germany, more than half said they did not support Israel (51 per cent), with its net favourability reaching 24 per cent. But disapproval almost doubles for Palestine, with 61 per cent of those polled saying they did not support the it. Net favourability for Palestine in Germany was 46 per cent, the lowest of all seven countries featured in the survey.

In France, the poll found almost equal disapproval of Israel (44 per cent) and Palestine (43 per cent). Although Spain’s government has taken a critical stance towards Israel and this year announced it would recognise an independent Palestinian state, public disapproval of Palestine reached 48 per cent – higher than in the UK and France.

Spanish disapproval of Israel was at 57 per cent, the highest of all countries polled.

There was clear disapproval of Israel’s war in Lebanon, which began in September after months of cross-border violence between the Israeli military and Hezbollah. Israel has since bombed Beirut and has invaded southern Lebanon, killing more than 3,000 people and displacing more than a million.

By contrast, only one in five people in the UK and France supported Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon. Only one in four did so in Germany.

Disapproval of Israel’s campaign in Lebanon was highest in Spain (68 per cent), with 14 per cent believing the war was justified in the country.

The majority of respondents said the US and Europe should do more to restrain Israel from taking military action in the conflict. This included about a third of respondents in the UK (30 per cent) and Germany (31 per cent), as well as 22 per cent in France and 39 per cent in Spain.

More than 20 per cent of people in the UK, France and Spain said their governments “should not be involved at all”. This view was held by almost 25 per cent people in Germany.

About 10 per cent of respondents in the UK and Spain, 14 per cent in France and 11 per cent in Germany said they believed their governments “should be doing more” to support Israel.

More than half of people in Germany (51 per cent) said their government should provide military aid to Israel in the event of a war with Iran. That figure rose to 56 per cent in Spain, but dropped below half in the UK (47 per cent) and France (43 per cent).