Half of Germans believe that Israel's military action in the Gaza Strip in response to the terrorist attack by the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement on October 7 goes too far.
Fifty per cent of respondents expressed this view in a survey published on Thursday by the Infratest dimap Institute for German public broadcaster ARD.
The figure is nine percentage points more than in a comparable survey carried out in November. According to the survey, 28% consider the reaction to be appropriate, while a further 5% do not think it goes far enough.
Only 23% are of the opinion that Israeli military actions are justified even if the Palestinian civilian population is also affected, while 61% do not consider such actions to be justified.
When asked who is responsible for the catastrophic conditions in the Gaza Strip, around three quarters of respondents named Hamas, with 39% regarding it as fully responsible and 34% as somewhat responsible.
Responsibility was attributed to Israel by 62% of respondents, with 19% saying that Israel was fully responsible for the situation, and a further 43% considering the country to be somewhat responsible.
The Gaza war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel's history, carried out in Israel by militants from Hamas and other extremist groups on October 7.
Israel responded with massive bombardments and shortly afterwards with a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas-controlled health authority has since put the number of dead at 30,800 and the number of injured at almost 72,300.
