More than five months after Hamas-led savage marauders slaughtered more than 1200 Israeli men, women and children, support for the October 7 massacre is at an all-time high among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
“Despite the ensuing war, the humanitarian crisis and the atrocities committed against Israelis, the vast majority of Palestinians in the West Bank (71 percent) and the Gaza Strip (71 percent) still viewed the October 7 “offensive”,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported Thursday citing a poll released by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR).
With the Biden White House arm-twisting Israel into abandoning the planned offensive against the Hamas top leadership hiding in Rafah, the majority of Palestinian — both in Gaza and the West Bank — were hoping for a Hamas ‘victory.’
The Israeli TV channel noted that the latest poll figures “indicated an increased 56 percent responded that Hamas would win the war and even more (59 percent) preferred that it would continue controlling Gaza. Although there was a considerable split between respondents in the West Bank (64 percent) and in the Strip (52 percent).”
If Hamas menages to secure a long-term ceasefire without losing its leadership and releasing Israeli hostages, the Palestinians will likely see this as win for the terrorist group.
The Times of Israel reported key findings of the poll:
A poll released Wednesday found declining levels of support for Hamas in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank since December, while a growing number of Gazans view the terror group’s October 7 onslaught favorably.The poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, which showed a wide array of sometimes contradictory stances, also found a dramatic rise in support for a two-state solution among Gazans, along with a dip among Palestinians in both the West Bank and the Strip in those who think independence should be achieved through armed struggle.According to the survey, which sampled 1,580 Palestinian adults in early March, 71 percent of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank believe that the October 7 massacres in which in terrorists killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 253 others was “correct,” versus 72% who said so when the organization’s previous poll was published in December.In the West Bank, the 71% figure is down from 82% in December who agreed with the decision to launch the onslaught. In Gaza, however, the number was a significant increase from the 57% who backed the move three months earlier.According to the PCPSR, the growing support for the brutal assault was likely tied to the belief that it had brought long-sought attention to the Palestinian struggle for statehood, and did not necessarily reflect support for the slaughter, abduction, rape and mutilation unleashed by Hamas on Israeli civilians.The poll found the number of Palestinians who admit Hamas committed war crimes fell from 10% to 5%.
There was a slight dip in the popularity for Hamas after an initial boost after the mass-killing, rape and kidnapping of Israelis on October 7, but its favorability number remain comparatively high.
Estimated 55 percent of Gazans and 64 percent of West Bank Palestinians wanted to see Hamas returned to power in the enclave after the war, the Israeli news website further reported:
Although support for Hamas as a political party rose among Gazans from 22% in September to 42% in December, the survey found it slipped back somewhat to 34% in March. In the West Bank, where support for Hamas had jumped from 12% to 44% after the attack, it fell back to 35% in March.While support for PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party returned to prewar levels of 25% in Gaza, it continued to plummet in the West Bank, hitting 12%, down from 26% in September.Asked who they would hope to see in charge of the Gaza Strip at the end of Israel’s war with Hamas, 52% of respondents in Gaza said they hoped to see Hamas return to rule the enclave, up from 38% in December. Among those in the West Bank, 64% think Hamas should run postwar Gaza, down from 75% in December.Twenty-one percent of respondents in Gaza said they hoped the Palestinian Authority would return to control the Strip but only under the leadership of someone other than Abbas, whom an overwhelming majority of Palestinians want to see resign.
The same poll showed growing support for a ‘Palestinian State,’ with 62 percent of Gazans supporting the option. The desire for statehood surges amid reports that the Biden administration is working behind the scenes with some Arab States in order to reward Palestinians with a separate state in the heels of the October 7 massacre.
“The Biden administration and a small group of Middle East partners are rushing to complete a detailed, comprehensive plan for long-term peace between Israel and Palestinians, including a firm timeline for the establishment of a Palestinian state,” The Washington Post reported mid-February.
The Israeli government has rejected any such move. “Now is not the time to be speaking about gifts for the Palestinian people,” Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office declared in statement responding to President Biden’s plans.
The Jerusalem Post reported:
According to recent polling, the proportion of Gazans who support a two-state solution has nearly doubled since December, from 35% to 62%.The polling, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), was conducted between March 5 and 10 in the West Bank and areas of the Gaza Strip where there was “no ongoing daily fighting.”The PCPSR conducted previous surveys in September and December 2023, during which the change in support for a two-state solution by Gazans was minimal, 34% to 35%, respectively.Compared to Gaza, support for a two-state solution in the West Bank barely grew, from 30% in Septemeber 2023 to 33% by December and 34% by March.The PCPSR links support for a two-state solution to the feasibility of the solution and the chances of a Palestinian state.The data also showed a clear drop in support for armed resistance as the best means of achieving a Palestinian State from its peak in December.In December, support for armed resistance across the Palestinian Territories was 63%, 68% in the West Bank and 56% in the Gaza Strip.The latest polling showed support for armed resistance at 46% across the Palestinian Territories, 51% in the West Bank, and 39% in the Gaza Strip.Although both showed a drop in support for armed resistance, the West Bank and Gaza Strip diverged on the alternative to armed resistance.
The poll figures once against confirm widespread support for Hamas’s genocidal ideology among Palestinians. While Hamas led the October 7 attacks, its terrorist forces were accompanied by ordinary Gazans as they went murdering, torturing and raping their way across the communities in southern Israel.
Earlier this month, a United Nations team that investigated the crimes committed on October 7, acknowledged that Gaza ‘civilians’ joined Palestinian terrorists in committing horrific atrocities on Israelis.
Those who breached the “Gaza perimeter fence at multiple points” on October 7 included Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists “other armed elements and armed and unarmed civilians,” the UN report admitted.
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