Majority of Gazans Have Lost Family Members in War, Still Support Oct 7: Poll

After eight months of a grinding, bloody war in Gaza, two-thirds of Palestinians across both the Gaza Strip and West Bank support Hamas' October 7 attacks on Israel, according to a new opinion survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), a think tank based in Ramallah that is one of the few organizations doing on-the-ground polling of Gazans.

The poll found that 67% of Palestinian respondents overall supported Hamas's decision to attack Israel that day, a massacre that killed some 1,200 people and shocked the world in its barbarism. Broken down by territory, support in the West Bank was higher, at 73%, compared to support within Gaza, at 57%.

While overall support for the Hamas attack remains elevated, according to the poll, it has declined by four percentage points compared to the last time PCPSR conducted its survey.

Polling of Palestinians is notoriously difficult, particularly in Gaza where civilians run the risk of retribution if they are found to insufficiently show support of Hamas.

Still, the PCPSR's latest survey is striking. More than 60% of Gazans reported that they lost a family member in the current war, but even more said they supported what happened on Oct. 7, which led to Israel's invasion. Eight in 10 respondents said they believed the attacks brought global attention to the Palestinian cause.

The poll highlighted a significant shift in the region's fraught political dynamics, with increased support for armed struggle and a sharp decline in backing for the two-state solution.

There was an increase in support for Hamas itself, as well, with 40% of respondents favoring the group over other political factions — a six-point increase from the previous poll. In contrast, support for Fatah, led by Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank, stood at just 20%.

More than 60% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with Abbas and his approach to the conflict, and supported the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority (PA) that governs the West Bank. Demand for Abbas's resignation has risen sharply, with 94% of West Bank Palestinians and 83% of Gazans calling for him to go.

Walid Ladadweh, head of the Survey Research Unit at PCPSR, told the Reuters news agency that the rise in support for Hamas should be seen as a reaction to Israel's offensive in Gaza, which has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths.

According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, more than 34,000 people have died since the war began, though the group does not make clear how many of those were combatants and the reliability of its casualty figures has been questioned.

Newsweek has reached out to PCPSR for further comment.

Looking beyond the current conflict, the survey found sharply divided opinions on who stands to rule a post-war Gaza. Fifty-six percent of respondents believed that Hamas would continue to rule the Strip after the war. A significant portion of Gazans also expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of international interventions and ceasefire agreements.

The PCPSR. poll, conducted between May 26 and June 1, surveyed 1,570 Palestinian adults, with 760 interviews conducted face-to-face in the West Bank and 750 in the Gaza Strip. The survey period coincided with the intensification of the Israeli ground offensive in Rafah, exacerbating the humanitarian situation and displacing approximately one million people, according to U.N. figures.

An English-language translation of the survey and its methodology can be found here.