A strong majority of American voters believe that Israel should move forward with a military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah to finish the war against Hamas, according to a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll published on Monday.
Survey respondents responded to a prompt asking, "Should Israel move forward with an operation in Rafah to finish the war with Hamas, doing its best to avoid civilian casualties even though there will be casualties, or should it back off now and allow Hamas to continue running Gaza?"
While willingness to support an Israeli operation in Rafah correlated with age (older respondents viewing such an operation more favorably than younger respondents,) even among the youngest respondents, those aged 18-24, 57% said Israel should move forward with a Rafah operation.
Older respondents overwhelmingly support an Israeli operation in Rafah
In contrast, 84% of respondents aged 65 and above said the same.
Additionally, respondents who reported that they followed Israel closely were far more likely than not to support a Rafah operation. Among these survey respondents, 77% said that Israel should move forward with an operationin Rafah.
The support of a majority of young people for further Israeli military action seems to represent a departure from previous Harvard CAPS/Harris polling.
In a January Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, 63% of 18-24 year olds said they favored an "unconditional ceasefire that would leave everyone in place."
Additionally, mere weeks after Hamas's massacre in southern Israel, an October Harvard CAPS/Harris poll revealed that only a slight majority, 52%, of 18-24 year olds sided with Israel over Hamas.
The recent poll sampled 1,961 registered voters and was conducted online within the United States from April 24-25.