Americans’ sympathies in the Israel-Palestinian conflict have moved sharply toward Palestinians, according to Gallup polling released in late February, leaving the country close to parity after years in which more Americans said they sympathized more with Israelis. The survey, conducted Feb. 2-16, 2026, found 41% of U.S. adults sympathized more with Palestinians, compared with 36% who said they sympathized more with Israelis, a result Gallup said sits within a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Gallup also said the change represented a dramatic turnaround from three years earlier. In 2023, Gallup reported that 54% of Americans sympathized more with Israelis, while 31% sympathized more with Palestinians.
The shift accelerated during the war in Gaza, Gallup’s analysis indicates, after decades in which support for Israel had been overwhelming in the U.S. Gallup said the movement toward Palestinians was already underway before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and then increased during Israel’s subsequent military operations in Gaza. In the same period, the poll notes, views about Israel’s conduct have become increasingly contentious, with some progressive politicians and activists describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide, a claim Israel vehemently denies.
Gallup said the change has been driven largely by Democrats. About two-thirds of Democrats now say their concerns lie more with Palestinians, while only about 2 in 10 sympathize more with Israelis. Gallup said the contrast is stark compared with 2016, when Democrats more often sympathized with Israelis—about half—while about one-quarter sympathized more with Palestinians.
Gallup attributed at least part of the earlier decline in sympathy to changing views of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the U.S. Gallup said his favorability fell nearly 15 percentage points between 2017 and 2024, and it described U.S. political developments that placed Netanyahu closer to Republican leaders, including a warmer relationship with President Donald Trump in Trump’s first term and earlier clashes with former President Barack Obama during Obama’s last year in office.
Among independents, Gallup said the new poll marks a break: independents expressed more sympathy for Palestinians than Israelis for the first time in Gallup’s trend, with about 4 in 10 independents sympathizing more with Palestinians and about 3 in 10 saying they sympathize more with Israelis. Republicans, Gallup said, continued to side more with Israel, with about 7 in 10 saying they sympathize more with Israelis, though that share was a slight downtick from about 8 in 10 before the start of the war. The poll also said some figures in the Republicans’ isolationist “America First” wing are increasingly questioning traditional U.S. support for Israel.
Benedict Vigers, a senior global news writer at Gallup, said the results reflect a longstanding divide in U.S. public opinion that has closed. “It’s the first time they have reached parity, which is really quite striking,” Vigers said. “In not many years, that very significant gap in public opinion has now completely closed.”
The poll also found notable generational differences. Gallup said adults ages 18 to 34 are increasingly sympathetic toward Palestinians, with about half saying they have more sympathy for Palestinians compared with about a quarter who say they have more sympathy for Israelis. Gallup said this shift has been moving toward Palestinians since around 2020, and it described student protests on college campuses during the war as part of the broader context.
Gallup cautioned that generational change does not fully explain the shift, and said its new poll found a partial break from last year in another age group. Vigers said the poll found for the first time that middle-aged Americans ages 35 to 54 expressed more sympathy for Palestinians than Israelis, a reversal from the prior year, while Americans over 55 remained more sympathetic toward Israel but that gap was narrowing. “With adults over 55, they are more sympathetic to Israelis, but it’s as low as it’s been since 2005,” Vigers said.
Gallup’s findings also extended to views on a two-state outcome. The new poll found that 57% of U.S. adults favor the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Gallup said. Vigers also said party polarization is at or near its record high on that question even though it has not sharply increased year over year. The poll said that over the last few years, Americans have grown less likely to say they have a favorable view of Israel while positive views of the Palestinian territories have improved, but Americans still remain more positive toward Israel, with 46% saying they have a favorable opinion of Israel compared with 37% for the Palestinian territories.
Gallup said support for the two-state solution has increased among Democrats and independents in recent years, with about three-quarters of Democrats and roughly 6 in 10 independents saying they support an independent Palestinian state, compared with only about one-third of Republicans. The poll also pointed to a disconnect between American opinion and people living in the region, citing the Gallup World Poll conducted in 2025 that found only about 3 in 10 Israelis and Palestinians supported a two-state solution where an independent Palestinian state existed alongside Israel.
The Gallup poll was conducted Feb. 2-16, 2026, among 1,001 U.S. adults aged 18 and older using Gallup’s probability-based panel, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.0 percentage points for adults overall. Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to the report.