Gallup’s annual world affairs poll asked Americans which side they sympathise with more in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The results which were released last week shows that Democrats lean more towards Palestinians than Israelis for the first time since such poll began in 2001.

The poll found that 49 percent of Democrats sympathised with Palestinians and 38 percent with Israelis, an 11-percentage-point increase over the past year.

“The most consequential changes in public opinion on this question have occurred in the past five years, as support for the Palestinians has ticked up and support for Israel, as well as ambivalence about the conflict, have each declined," said Lydia Saad, director of US social research at Gallup.

The escalation of Israeli-Palestinian hostilities over the past year, resulting in a high number of Palestinians killed, could partly explain the most recent shift in Democrats’ perspective, the Gallup said.

Among independents, sympathy toward the Palestinians raised by six points to 32 percent, while 49 percent of them still lean toward the Israelis.

Among US adults as a whole, those favouring Palestinians has risen to a new high of 31 percent.

Meanwhile, the percentage of those not favouring either side has declined to a new low of 15 percent.

As for the Republicans, opinions remained unchanged, with 78 percent sympathising more with the Israelis and 11 percent siding with the Palestinians.

The 54 percent of Americans sympathising more with the Israelis is similar to last year’s 55 percent but is still the lowest since 2005.