The initial sympathy for Israel in the immediate wake of the October 7 attacks is diminishing as Tel Aviv’s response is widely viewed as disproportionate, Anadolu Agency reports.

Nearly 17,200 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, with an estimated 70 per cent being women and children.

Government officials in the West are still very pro-Israel, but “now they have to respond to outraged public opinion,” Nader Hashemi, associate professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, told Anadolu.

That is forcing them “to make statements that attempt to acknowledge the Palestinian dimension of this crisis, the suffering in Gaza, the need for a Palestinian state,” he said.​​​​​​​

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