A new poll of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza shows that 71% still approve of the terror attack by Hamas on October 7 — a result that is almost unchanged since the same poll was taken late last year, though there have been geographic changes.
The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research Poll conducted a survey among 1580 adults using face-to-face interviews in both the West Bank (830 respondents) and Gaza (750 respondents), with a 3% margin of error.
The results were as follows, according to the pollster (emphasis removed):
As we did in our previous poll three months ago, we asked the respondents in this poll what they thought of Hamas’ decision to launch the October the 7th offensive. A vast majority of 71%, compared to 72% in December 2023, say it was correct. However, despite the stability of the total response, the findings do show significant change when looking at the two areas separately. As the figure below shows, the perception that the decision of the offensive was correct drops in the West Bank by 11 points and increases in the Gaza Strip by 14 points.
The poll found that respondents were unaware of Hamas atrocities:
As we have found in the previous poll, almost all Palestinians think Israel is committing war crimes while almost all believe Hamas is not committing war crimes in the current war. Moreover, more than 90% believe that Hamas did not commit any atrocities against Israel civilians during its October the 7th offensive. Only one in five Palestinians has seen videos showing atrocities committed by Hamas. Only one fifth of those who did not see the videos had access to such videos but decided not to see them; the rest report that the media they watched did not show these videos. The findings show that those who have seen the videos are almost 10 times more likely to think that Hamas men have committed atrocities on October 7.
Other findings are also interesting, such as that a majority of Gaza residents support continued Hamas control of the Gaza Strip.
U.S. President Joe Biden has claimed that the majority of Palestinians are “not Hamas.”
I won't mince words.
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 22, 2024
The overwhelming majority of Palestinians are not Hamas. And Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people.
In fact, they're also suffering as a result of Hamas' terrorism. We need to be clear-eyed about that reality.
A majority of respondents also expected that Hamas would “win” the war.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
