Gaza war increased Hamas’s popularity, poll shows

palestinian support has increased dramatically for hamas, and has dropped significantly for palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas’s ruling Fatah faction, according to a public opinion poll published on Tuesday.

The poll showed that 77% of palestinians believed that hamas emerged the winner in last month’s 11-day war with Israel, while 65% thought that the Islamic movement achieved its declared goal in firing rockets at Israel: to stop the eviction of arab families from the east jerusalem neighborhood of sheikh jarrah and to bring an end to Israeli “restrictions” on muslim access to the al-aqsa mosque compound on the Temple mount.

Conducted by the ramallah-based palestinian Center for policy and survey research, the poll covered 1,200 palestinians, has a margin of error of 3%, and was conducted between june 9 and 12.

The results showed that 72% of those polled thought that hamas launched rockets at Israeli cities in defense of jerusalem and al-aqsa mosque. only 9% credited cancellation of the palestinian general elections.

according to the poll, if new palestinian presidential elections were held today, hamas leader Ismail haniyeh would get 59% of the votes, and abbas 27%. hamas would also win in a parliamentary election, the poll found. more than 40% said they would cast their ballots for hamas, as opposed to 30% for Fatah.

however, if the presidential election was between jailed Fatah leader marwan Barghouti and haniyeh, Barghouti would receive 51% and haniyeh 26%.

Two-thirds of the palestinian public believed that abbas delayed the parliamentary and presidential elections because he was worried about the results, while 25% thought he postponed them because Israel refused to allow the vote to take place in east jerusalem. some 65% said they oppose abbas’s decision, taken in april.

The poll also found that 67% felt the chances of establishing a palestinian state in the next five years are slim or nonexistent, and 58% opposed the two-state solution. a majority of 61% believed that it is no longer feasible, due to the expansion of West Bank settlements. nearly 40% of those surveyed said that they prefer to wage “armed struggle” against Israel; only 27% said that they prefer reaching a peace agreement. under the current circumstances, 70% said they oppose unconditional resumption of Israeli-palestinian negotiations.

lastly, the poll found that 69% were not optimistic about the new Israeli government led by prime minister naftali Bennett.