Young Americans continue to have mixed views about Hamas and Israel: poll

Regarding hostages, 65% of Americans aged 18 to 24 say that the terrorists must “release all remaining hostages without any conditions or face serious consequences.”

By JNS

America’s youngest adults continue to be an outlier in their views of Hamas and Israel, according to a poll released on Monday.

The Harvard/Harris poll for March found that 48% of American 18- to 24-year-olds say they support Hamas over the Jewish state, making them the only age demographic for which Israel did not enjoy at least double-digit support over the terrorist group in the Gaza Strip.

By contrast, 93% of Americans 65 and older say they support Israel compared to just 7% who say they support Hamas. Overall, 77% of Americans say they support Israel compared with 23% who say they support Hamas.

Harvard/Harris conducted the online poll of 2,746 registered voters from March 26-27.

Despite nearly half of 18- to 24-year-olds saying that they support Hamas, their responses to the poll are less dramatically out of line with other age cohorts when asked about what should be done with the terror group.

Only 37% of the youngest U.S. adults believe that Hamas should be allowed to govern Gaza after the war, compared to 24% of the overall U.S. population that says the same.

Regarding hostages taken from Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, 65% of Americans aged 18 to 24 say that the terrorists must “release all remaining hostages without any conditions or face serious consequences,” compared to 80% of the overall U.S. population.

Americans are more divided about how to approach other regional crises. Some 72% of Americans believe that Iran’s nuclear-weapons facilities should be destroyed, but only 59% say they would back an Israeli airstrike on those facilities.

Asked if they support or oppose U.S. President Donald Trump’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, 54% say they support his approach and 46% oppose it, with Republicans overwhelmingly supporting the administration’s efforts and Democrats overwhelmingly opposing them. Independents narrowly oppose Trump’s approach by 52%.