Published on •Updated
A new YouGov study shows that the favourability towards Israel in Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Spain and Italy is at or near its lowest level in Western Europe since 2016.
The research interviewed 8,625 people from these six key Western European countries between November 2016 and May 2025.
Net favourability towards Israel in Germany (-44), France (-48), and Denmark (-54) has reached its lowest level since YouGov started tracking in 2016, while public sentiment in Italy (-52) and Spain (-55) are likewise at their lowest or joint lowest levels, despite a shorter timespan from 2021 onwards.
A number of Europeans across these six countries think Israel was right to send troops into Gaza, but believe they have since gone too far and caused too many civilian casualties.
This opinion won the most support in Germany at 40%, followed by Denmark at 39% and Britain at 38%.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas perpetrated a string of terrorist attacks against Israel, killing almost 1,200 people. It also took more than 250 hostages.
In response, Israel launched a large air and ground military campaign, leaving more than 54,000 Palestinians dead, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas authorities.
Food supplies have also been blocked, with the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)’s latest report stating half a million people face starvation.
Between 7% and 18% of European respondents say they sympathise most with the Israeli side, the lowest figure in most countries since the Hamas attacks.
By contrast, between 18% and 33% say they sympathise more with the Palestinian side.
Only in Germany are the figures for each side similar, with 17% for Israel and 18% for Palestine.
Despite permanent peace in the Middle East seeming distant to Europeans, French people are the most optimistic that both sides will set aside their differences within the next 10 years.
Meanwhile, Danes are the least optimistic at 15%.
Across all countries, the opinion that peace is realistic has fallen in popularity by between four and ten percentage points.
