Polls show soaring Palestinian support for Barghouti as Hamas, Abbas stumble
New polling of Palestinian adults suggests that Hamas has been more popular than Fatah in the West Bank, while Fatah is more popular than Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
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Three Palestinian public opinion polls conducted in May 2024 and published in recent weeks showed sustained support for Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza and a slight improvement in support for Fatah. Notably, since the Oct. 7 attack and subsequent war, Hamas has been more popular than Fatah in the West Bank, while Fatah is more popular than Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The poll carried out by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip between May 26 and June 1, 2024, which surveyed 1,570 adults, showed that “while support for Hamas over the past three months has increased by 6 percentage points and support for Fatah has risen by 3 percentage points across both the West Bank and Gaza over that period, more Gazans now believe that Hamas will not be the ruling power in the future.”
Significant differences appeared between Palestinians surveyed in the West Bank and Gaza. “Only 46% of Gazans expect that Hamas will actually control that area [the Gaza Strip], compared to a higher 62% in the West Bank, up from 59% in both areas three months ago," the poll found when asking respondents about their expectations on postwar governance of Gaza. The result, the poll noted, represented "a decrease of 3 percentage points compared to the results obtained three months ago.”
