More than four in 10 Americans believe Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinian civilians, according to the latest Economist/YouGov poll.

The survey, conducted Aug. 1-4, uncovered a striking partisan and generational divide, with Democrats and younger Americans being far more likely than Republicans and older adults to say a genocide is taking pace.

It comes nearly two years into Israel’s war in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of more than 55,000 Palestinians, most being women and children, according to Gaza health officials. Many of the enclave’s 2.1 million inhabitants now face famine and starvation, due in part to Israeli restrictions on aid, according to the United Nations.

The conflict began in October 2023, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing around 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians, and taking more than 200 hostage.

As the war draws on and the civilian death toll mounts, multiple human rights organizations and a handful of U.S. lawmakers have characterized the events in Gaza as a genocide — an assertion that Israeli officials have forcefully rejected.

Is a genocide taking place?

In the poll — which sampled 1,702 U.S. adults — 43% of respondents said they believed Israel is “committing genocide against Palestinian civilians.” Meanwhile, 28% said they disagreed and 29% said they were not sure.

This question exposed a deep cleavage between the political left and right.

Roughly two-thirds of Democrats, 65%, assert that Israel is committing genocide, while only 8% disagree. In contrast, just 19% of Republicans believe a genocide is occurring, with nearly half, 49%, rejecting that characterization. Independents fell in between, with 48% agreeing that genocide is taking place and 25% saying it is not.

A similar rift emerged along generational lines, with 54% of 18-29-year-olds describing Israel’s actions as constituting genocide and 38% of those 65 and older saying the same.

The survey, which has a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points, indicates public opinion on the question of Israeli genocide has shifted slightly since the outbreak of war.

In a November 2023 Yougov poll, 34% of Americans said “Arabs in the Gaza Strip” were victims of a genocide, while 32% disagreed and 35% said they did not know (A larger share, 39%, said “Jewish people in Israel” were victims of a genocide).

More on genocide claims

In recent weeks, there has been significant public debate over whether or not Israel is committing a genocide — a term coined in 1944 in response to the Holocaust.

The U.N. defines genocide as acts perpetrated with the goal of destroying — in entirety or in part — a racial, religious, national or ethnic group. These acts encompass killing or causing serious harm to members of the group as well as imposing living conditions designed to bring about their destruction.

On Aug. 4, B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, released a report concluding that a genocide is taking place in Gaza.

“Israel has been leading a systematic policy for almost two years, with clear and visible outcomes: entire cities erased, the healthcare system shattered, educational, religious and cultural institutions destroyed, more than 2 million people forcibly displaced, and masses killed and starved,” the report said. “That is precisely the definition of genocide.”

Around the same time, a second Israeli group, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), reached the same conclusion. As evidence, it pointed to what is described as “a deliberate and systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health and life-sustaining systems.”

South Africa, in December 2023, also officially accused Israel of committing genocide in a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The case is ongoing.

Meanwhile, while some U.S. lawmakers have ramped up their criticism of Israel, most have refrained from categorizing the events in Gaza as a genocide — with notable exceptions including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican, and Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat.

In a July interview, Sen. Bernie Sanders refrained from using the term genocide, describing it as “a legal term.” He added, “What is going on now clearly is absolutely horrific… But the important point is not what you call it — it is horror — the answer is what the hell do we do about it?”

Other U.S. lawmakers have rejected more forcefully claims of Israeli genocide, including Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, according to NBC News.

“I want to be crystal clear on my thoughts regarding the catastrophe in Gaza: I blame Hamas 100%,” Graham wrote on X on July 29. “If you want this suffering to end, call on Hamas to lay down their weapons and their leaders to take safe passage out of Gaza.”

Israeli officials have also vehemently opposed accusations of genocide and other crimes.

In January 2024, Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy called South Africa’s genocide charge “absurd blood libel.” And in July, the Israeli foreign ministry dismissed recent human rights reports, calling them “politically motivated” and saying Israel does not target civilians, according to CNN. Around the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied reports of starvation in Gaza and accused Hamas of stealing food aid.

“There is no starvation in Gaza, no policy of starvation in Gaza, and I assure you that we have a commitment to achieve our war goals,” Netanyahu said, adding, “We stand for human freedom and human life.”

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