The poll showed that the Israeli public mostly prefers giving up control of the Philadelphi Corridor in order to enable a prisoner-hostage exchange deal (48%).

By MOSHE COHEN

The majority of the Israeli public prefers giving up control of the Philadelphi Corridor in exchange for a prisoner-hostage deal (48%), over maintaining control of the corridor at the cost of forgoing the deal (37%), according to a Maariv poll published Friday.

The breakdown showed that among Jewish-Israeli respondents, there was a much smaller margin between those who preferred to relinquish control of the corridor to make a deal - 44% - and those who wished to maintain control of the corridor even at the cost of not reaching an agreement (42%). 

This contradicted a KAN poll on Monday, which showed a slight majority of Jewish Israelis were against giving up the Philadelphi corridor in order to secure a hostage deal (49%).

The breakdown of this vote in terms of political affiliation, based on who they intended to vote for in future elections, showed increased polarization and a deep divide. Among opposition party voters, 75% supported giving up control of the Philadelphi Corridor for the deal, whereas 74% of coalition party voters opposed it, even if it meant no hostage-prisoner exchange deal. 

Likud party gains popularity following Philadelphi speechFollowing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "Philadelphi Speech," the Likud party has gained two additional seats this week, meaning Netanyahu has regained the lead over Benny Gantz in terms of who is more suitable for the premiership.Netanyahu surpassed Gantz (42% vs. 40%, respectively). 

This has switched from last week's Maariv poll, where Gantz led Netanyahu by 1%.According to the poll, Netanyahu also surpasses Yair Lapid (45% vs. 36%) and Avigdor Lieberman (43% vs. 35%).Only Naftali Bennett surpasses Netanyahu in the 'suitability for Prime Minister question', with 49% viewing him as the strongest candidate, compared to 34% for Netanyahu.The poll also shows that the National Unity party gained one seat, the Democrats lost two seats, and United Torah Judaism lost one seat. 

Overall, the coalition has strengthened this week by one seat, reaching 52 seats, compared to 58 seats for the opposition bloc. 

The Arab parties received ten seats.Who would Israeli voters choose?

Following the question: "If new elections were held today, who would you vote for," the results of the respondents led to Likud having 23 seats (21 in the previous poll), National Unity with 22 (21 previously), Yisrael Beyteinu with 15 (15), Yesh Atid with 13 (13), Otzma Yehudit with nine (9), Shas with nine (9), Democrats Party with eight (10), United Torah Judaism with seven (8), Hadash-Ta’al with six (6), Ra’am four (4), Religious Zionism four (4).New Hope-United Right (1.3%) and Balad (1.4%) did not pass the electoral threshold.The poll, conducted on September 4-5, included 506 respondents, representing a sample of the adult population in Israel aged 18 and over, both Jewish and Arab. 

The maximum sampling error in the poll was 4.4%.