About half in new poll worried about possibility of broader war in Middle East

Around half of Americans are worried about the possibility of a broader war in the Middle East, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey found 51 percent of registered voters are “extremely/very” concerned about the conflict in the Middle East escalating further. Another 36 percent said they were “somewhat concerned,” while 11 percent stated they were not worried as much or not at all.

The poll was conducted before Israel’s strike on Iran last week.

Approximately 85 percent of registered voters said they were at least “somewhat concerned” that the U.S. will be drawn into a war in the Middle East, according to the survey. Some 14 percent disagreed.

Nearly half of Americans surveyed, 49 percent, said the U.S. is doing “as much as it can” to broker a cease-fire between the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Some 3 in 10 registered voters said the U.S. could be doing more.

Nearly 6 in 10 registered voters said Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iranian government bear “a lot” of responsibility for the escalation that has transpired in the Middle East in the past year since Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 Israelis, while another 250 were taken hostage.

The Israeli government has responded to last year's attack by bombarding Gaza, engaging in a military operation in the territory that has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians. Upward of 90 percent of Gaza population has been displaced since Israel's military campaign began.

About 42 percent of Americans said the Israeli government has “a lot” of responsibility for the escalation, while 18 percent pinned it on the U.S. government. There’s a big divide along party lines on Israeli government’s responsibility in the ongoing conflict — about 57 percent of Democratic voters said Israel's government bears “a lot” of responsibility, while 39 percent of independents and 26 percent of Republicans said the same.

The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll was conducted Oct. 11-14 among 1,072 adults. The margin of error for registered voters was 4.2 percentage points.