Almost three out of five Israelis are in favor of restarting the conflict in the Gaza Strip due to Hamas turning down a U.S. offer to prolong the ceasefire in return for freeing more hostages.

A recent study conducted by Israel’s Direct Polls Institute and reported by Channel 14 revealed that 59% of Israelis endorse the idea of resuming hostilities. This data was gathered prior to the Israel Defense Forces beginning a series of extensive airstrikes in Gaza.

Some 38% said they opposed it, while 3% of respondents did not express a position.

The Direct Polls Institute, known for accurately foreseeing the outcome of Israel’s most recent general election in 2022, surveyed 506 Israeli adults on March 17. According to them, there is a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points with a confidence level of 95%.

The IDF announced early on Tuesday morning that it had launched “extensive” strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said the military was acting after Hamas rebuffed several proposals from U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and others.

“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

The goal of the campaign remains to achieve “the objectives of the war as they have been determined by the political echelon, including the release of all of our hostages, the living and the deceased,” the PMO statement added.

Even before Netanyahu ordered the airstrikes, his Likud Party was strengthening in the polls, according to Monday’s Direct Polls survey.

If a vote were to be called now, the Likud Party would secure 34 Knesset mandates out of the parliament’s 120, up two since the previous Direct Polls survey published on March 6 and one more than it won in the general election on Nov. 1, 2022.

Netanyahu’s coalition of right-wing and religious parties would win 64 mandates, up one since the March 6 survey, and the same amount of Knesset mandates it received in the 2022 election, per Direct Polls.

After the Likud Party, Yair Golan’s far-left HaDemokratim received the next most seats (18), followed by the Yisrael Beytenu Party (14), Shas (11), United Torah Judaism and National Unity Party (eight each), Yesh Atid and Otzma Yehudit (six each), and Religious Zionism, Ra’am (the United Arab List) and Hadash-Ta’al (five each).

In a head-to-head matchup for who is best suited for the role of prime minister, Netanyahu defeated National Unity Party’s Benny Gantz by a margin of 47% to 17% (36% of respondents said neither was suited).

When choosing between Netanyahu and Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid, 47% replied that the longtime Likud prime minister was best suited to lead the Jewish state, 20% preferred Lapid, and 33% said neither.

The next national vote is scheduled for 2026.