66% of Israelis prefer Netanyahu retiring from politics: Poll

By Said Amouri

JERUSALEM (AA) - Two-thirds of the Israeli public favors Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaving politics and not running for a new term, according to an opinion poll on Friday.

The poll was conducted by the Israeli private Channel 12 which showed 66% of respondents want Netanyahu, 74, to retire and not run for a seventh term as prime minister.

Twenty-seven percent of respondents support him staying in power and running for a new term.

Another poll by the Maariv newspaper had Benny Gantz, who heads the National Unity Party, beating Netanyahu for the prime minister post.

Given Netanyahu's reluctance to hold early elections, there are no imminent prospects of a vote in Israel, which has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 37,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 86,500 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar