Vast majority of voters back Israel over Hamas: Poll

An overwhelming majority of voters say they support Israel over Hamas in their ongoing war, according to a poll released Monday.

The Harvard CAPS-Harris poll found that 80 percent of respondents said they supported Israel over Hamas in the conflict, compared to 20 percent who said they sided with Hamas more.  

That level of support for Israel has essentially remained unchanged since last month, when a similar poll found 81 percent of respondents saying they supported Israel more.

In the latest Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, support for Israel and Hamas was more divided among respondents aged 18-24, with 57 percent of that cohort saying they supported Israel more and 43 percent saying they supported Hamas more.

But the divide in support between Israel and Hamas grows more stark the older the respondent gets, according to the poll. Among respondents aged 25-34, 70 percent say they support Israel, while 30 percent said they supported Hamas. 

When respondents 65 and older weighed in, 93 percent said they supported Israel, while 7 percent said they backed Hamas.

The poll also found that 39 percent of respondents approved of President Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Biden was only ranked lower on two other issues — 35 percent who said they approved his handling of immigration, and 36 percent of those who said they approved his handling of inflation.

The Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey was conducted Jan. 17-18 and surveyed 2,346 registered voters. It is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and the Harris Poll.

The survey is an online sample drawn from the Harris Panel and weighted to reflect known demographics. As a representative online sample, it does not report a probability confidence interval.