Approval for President Trump’s handling of the Gaza conflict has jumped over the past month as the administration pushes to maintain the ceasefire, according to a poll released Wednesday.
Forty-seven percent of registered voters in the Quinnipiac University survey said they support the way Trump is handling the conflict, while 41 percent disapprove of the president’s handling. Eleven percent were unsure or didn’t answer.
Support for Trump’s handling of the conflict is up 16 points from September, when 31 percent said they approved and a majority said they disapproved.
The latest survey was conducted after Trump announced a ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas earlier this month. Trump traveled to Israel on Oct. 13 to tout the agreement brokered by his administration.
The broader peace deal has since been on fragile ground, with Israel responding with strikes following what it called a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire by Hamas over the weekend.
Israel said Sunday that “terrorists” attacked its military positions in southern Gaza, placing the blame on Hamas. Israel’s subsequent airstrikes killed more than 20 people in the territory, Reuters reported.
Hamas and its military wing said Sunday they were still committed to the ceasefire.
On Monday, Trump advised Hamas against more attacks against Israel’s military.
“This is a very violent group of people, and they got very rambunctious, and they did things that they shouldn’t be doing. And if they keep doing it, then we’re going to go in and straighten it out, and it’ll happen very quickly and pretty violently, unfortunately. We are going to eradicate Hamas,” Trump said.
The Quinnipiac survey of 1,327 self-identified registered voters was conducted Oct. 16-20 with a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
