As the Israel-Hamas conflict continues into its second month, a new nationwide survey from the University of South Florida shows that a majority of Americans (59%) support providing military aid to Israel. And an even greater majority (66%) support the U.S. providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians affected by the war.
The public opinion survey comes as a group of U.S. Senate Republicans, including Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, have announced their opposition to a Biden administration proposal to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza, as part of a funding package of more than $14 billion to Israel and an additional $61 billion to Ukraine.
The approximately $9 billion for humanitarian aid would go for needs in Israel, the Gaza Strip, Ukraine and other global areas, the States Newsroom has reported.
The U.S. senators says that they oppose the proposal to provide money to Gaza because they believe that aid will be funneled to Hamas, the organization that attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
In the USF survey, when asked about Israel’s military response to the Hamas attacks, 44% said that it has been “appropriately aggressive.” A total of 19% said it has been too aggressive, while 18% said it hasn’t been aggressive enough. Nearly a fifth of those surveyed, or 19.5%, said they were unsure.
Also, 82% of those surveyed said they are very concerned or somewhat concerned that the conflict could lead to a broader war in the Middle East, and nearly 80% say they are concerned that the U.S. could be drawn into the fight.
Meanwhile, the country is conflicted about continuing military support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, which is now in its 20th month.
When asked if those surveyed supported or opposed providing additional military aid to Ukraine in the form of conventional weapons and ammunition, exactly 50% said they strongly or somewhat support that, with 40.5% opposing it. Republicans are much more opposed (55%) than Democrats (23%), with independents at 42%.
In addition, when asked if they would prefer a presidential candidate who promises to provide additional military aid to Ukraine, the public is somewhat split, with 36% saying that they would prefer such a candidate, 27% saying that they prefer a candidate who promises to stop providing military aid to Ukraine, and 36% saying that it doesn’t matter to them whether a candidate supports providing such aid.
The survey of 1,200 eligible voters took place between Oct. 23 and Oct. 28, with a margin of error of +/- 2.7%.
This article originally appeared in florida phoenix