More Americans want Biden to encourage Israel to cease military action in Gaza: poll 

A growing number of Americans want President Biden to encourage Israel to cease its military action in Gaza, according to a new poll.

A new CBS News poll found that 37 percent of Americans want Biden to encourage Israel to stop its military actions in Gaza — slightly up from the 31 percent who said the same in February. Another 23 percent said in the new poll that Biden should encourage Israel to decrease its military actions in Gaza.

Biden amped up his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent weeks as Israel continued its war against militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Biden said last week that Netanyahu’s approach to the war “is a mistake.”

The poll found that just 12 percent said Biden should urge Israel to increase its military actions in Gaza. Another 28 percent said that Biden should tell Israel to keep its military actions the same, which is down from the 32 percent who said so in February.

Overall, 33 percent of respondents said they approved of Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, which is the lowest percentage CBS News polling has recorded since the onset of the war. It is down from the 38 percent who approved of Biden’s handling in February and down from the 44 percent who approved in October.

The poll, conducted before Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel, also found that most Americans did not want the U.S. to take military action against Iran if it attacked Israel. Iran launched a significant aerial attack against Israel on Saturday, but most of the attacks were thwarted with the help of the U.S.

Twenty-five percent said the U.S. should take military action, 42 percent said the U.S. should support Israel’s actions but not get involved militarily and 32 percent said the U.S. should not get involved at all.

The CBS News/YouGov poll was conducted among 2,399 U.S. adults between April 9-12 and has a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points.