40% of Israelis back Biden-announced cease-fire proposal for Gaza: Poll

​​​​​​​By Said Amori

JERUSALEM (AA) – Some 40% of Israelis support a proposal announced late last week by US President Joe Biden that he said could lead to a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, according to a poll conducted by the Israeli Broadcasting Authority.

However, nearly 27% of the respondents said they opposed the deal and around 33% said they are undecided, the public broadcaster reported.

The survey also found that around 42% of Israelis believe the Palestinian group Hamas’s rule in the Gaza Strip cannot be eliminated, while 32% said Israel was capable of doing so.

It further revealed that 55% of Israelis “support expanding the confrontation with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.”

The sample included 605 Israelis over the age of 18, with a margin of error of slightly above 4%.

On Friday, Biden said Israel presented a three-phase deal that could end hostilities in the Gaza Strip and secure the release of hostages held in the coastal enclave.

He called on Hamas to accept the proposal and urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resist pressure from members of his governing coalition to reject the plan.

Netanyahu's office, however, on Friday reiterated his intention to continue Israel’s deadly offensive in Gaza until all of its war goals are achieved.

Hamas said it would "respond positively to any proposal that includes a permanent cease-fire, a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, reconstruction efforts, the return of the displaced and the completion of a comprehensive hostage exchange deal."

More than 36,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a deadly Israeli offensive since Oct. 7 last year following a cross-border incursion by Hamas into Israel.

The majority of those killed have been women and children, with over 82,600 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid Israel's crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala