Nearly half of Israelis prefer the army to wait and not launch a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, according to a poll published today, a major shift in Israeli public opinion on the issue.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Palestinian movement’s October 7 attack on the southern part of the country killed at least 1,400 people. Since then the Israeli army has continuously bombarded the Gaza Strip and has increased its raids with tanks and infantry.

When asked whether Israel should immediately escalate its attacks and proceed with a broad ground operation inside Gaza the 29% of respondents answered “yes”, while 49% believe that “it would be better to wait” and 22% are undecidedaccording to the poll published in the newspaper Maariv.

The newspaper pointed out that these figures differ from those of a previous poll conducted on October 19, which had found that 65% of respondents supported a major ground operation against Gaza.

“From the analysis of the responses it appears that (the responses) are not divided by political camp or demographics and that it is almost certain that the developments in the hostage issue, which is now at the top of the agenda, have a significant impact on this change (of public opinion),” wrote Maariv.

Hamas released four of its hostages in Gaza last week, while countries in the region are mediating to secure the release of more.

The Palestinian movement announced that around 50 hostages have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza. A former hostage said she was being held with at least twenty others in Hamas underground tunnels and an underground shelter complex targeted by Israel.