Israelis say Hamas must be crushed despite Gaza casualties: Poll

Israeli citizens said on Dec 13 that the army should not back off from its unrelenting offensive to crush Hamas, despite the United Nations General Assembly's ceasefire call, the growing list of troop casualties and a spiralling Palestinian death toll in Gaza.

 

Israel's military suffered one of the deadliest days in the twomonth-old Gaza war on Dec 12, with a colonel among 10 soldiers killed, bringing the toll to 115 - almost double the number of fatalities during clashes in the coastal enclave nine years ago.

And with much of the Gaza Strip laid to waste, conditions dire and more than 18,000 Palestinians killed in the Israeli army's air and ground assault, United States President Joe Biden said the "indiscriminate" bombing of Gazan civilians was costing Israel international support.

But six Israelis who spoke to Reuters on Dec 13 said now was not the time to back down, regardless of fading global sympathy reflected in the UN resolution on Dec 12.

Polls in recent weeks show overwhelming support for the war despite the rising costs.

Hamas' killing of about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on Oct 7 revived something Israel previously felt when Arabs staged a surprise attack in 1973 - fears that its neighbours and enemies could do away with the Jewish nation altogether, said political scientist Tamar Hermann.

"The sense of the people is that this is a threat to the very existence of Israel," said Professor Hermann of the Israel Democracy Institute, which conducts regular opinion polls on the war. She said people were prepared for more deaths of soldiers.

Speaking in Jerusalem, retiree Ben Zion Levinger said Israel's enemies would see any respite in the pursuit of Hamas as a sign of weakness.