Maariv: Half of the Israelis prefer Gantz and support postponing the ground invasion of Gaza

A recent public opinion poll showed, on Friday, that 49% of Israelis believe that Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity Party, is most suitable for prime minister, and they support postponing the ground operation against Gaza.

The poll was conducted by the Israeli Lazar Private Research Institute, for Maariv newspaper, and included a random sample of 522 Israeli adults with a margin of error of 4.3%.

Maariv reported that 29% of respondents said that the Israeli army must immediately enter a large-scale ground operation in Gaza, while 49% of them said that they should wait, and 22% said that they didn’t have a specific answer.

Maariv noted that in a poll last week, the majority of participants (65 percent) supported a large-scale ground operation in the Gaza Strip.

It’s likely that the developments that have occurred since then regarding the issue of the abductees in Gaza, which rose to the top of the agenda, have great weight in this change.

Within less than a week, Hamas released 4 female prisoners for humanitarian reasons, including two women who hold US citizenship and two others who are Israeli.

On the other hand, 49% of the survey participants believe that Beni Gantz, the leader of the opposition National Unity party, is most suitable for the position of prime minister, according to the results, while 28% believed that current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is most suitable for this position, compared to 23% who said they didn’t have a specific opinion.

The poll revealed a sharp collapse in the popularity of the Likud party led by Netanyahu, compared to a significant rise for the National Unity party, led by Gantz.

The poll expected the National Unity Party to win 36 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, if elections were held today, compared to the 12 seats it has now.

While the Likud Party is likely to obtain only 19 seats, compared to the 32 seats it has today.