Palestinians support 7 Oct op, oppose ‘two state’ and PA rule: Poll
The Cradle, June 13, 2024 —
Over 80 percent of Palestinians agree that the 7 October resistance attacks put the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestine back at the center of global attention.
A new public opinion poll of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank published on 13 June shows that a significant majority continue to support the Hamas-led Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, which precipitated Israel’s campaign of genocide in Gaza eight months ago.
The poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) was conducted between 26 May and 1 June and had a sampling size of 1,570 adults, of whom 760 were interviewed face-to-face in the West Bank and 750 in the Gaza Strip.
When respondents were asked whether they think the decision by Hamas to launch the 7 October attack on Israel’s southern settlements was “correct or incorrect,” 67 percent of respondents supported the decision, while 26 percent opposed it.
According to the PCPSR report, more than 80 percent of respondents said that Operation Al-Aqsa Flood “put the Palestinian issue at the center of attention and eliminated years of neglect at the regional and international levels.”
Sixty-seven percent of Palestinians also agreed that the Palestinian resistance would emerge victorious at the end of this war, with only 11 percent saying Israel would win and 18 percent picking neither.
Support for the 7 October operation and expectations of a possible Hamas victory are higher in the West Bank than in the decimated Gaza Strip, where 50 percent of Palestinians picked either Israel or “none of them” as the eventual victor.
Nevertheless, most Palestinians agree that Hamas should rule the Gaza Strip once the genocidal war grinds to an end, with opposition to either the current Palestinian Authority (PA) or a “reformed” version coming from all sides.
When asked about their satisfaction with Arab and regional actors, the highest satisfaction rate (71 percent) went to Yemen, which has been leading a months-long naval campaign against Israeli trade interests in the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea.
Yemen was followed by Qatar, which has been mediating ceasefire talks for several months, with 61 percent satisfaction. Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah and Iran came next, tied at 59 percent satisfaction.
In regards to long-stalled western plans for a “two-state solution,” only 32 percent of Palestinians showed support for the idea, with 65 percent opposing it.
Furthermore, a large majority of Palestinians say that the best way to “break the stalemate” with Israel is to “dissolve the PA” (62 percent) and “resort to an armed intifada” (63 percent).
