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Half of Gazans Support Recent Anti-Hamas Protests, New Poll Finds
Palestinians protest to demand an end to war, chanting anti-Hamas slogans, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, March 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
Nearly half of Gazans support recent anti-Hamas protests that have taken place in the Palestinian enclave, according to a new poll released by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR).
Conducted in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from May 1 to May 4, the poll found that 48 percent of Gazans support the recent anti-Hamas protests that have taken place across the Strip since March. The protests, which have been supported by major clans across Gaza but have also been met with threats by Hamas, have featured chants calling Hamas terrorists and demanding they step down from power.
Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist group and offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, violently eliminated its Palestinian opposition in a brief conflict in 2007, taking full control of Gaza after winning legislative elections the prior year.
Nearly two decades later, many Gazans have turned on the Islamist movement, according to the latest PCPSR poll.
However, despite almost half of Gazans saying they agree with the protests, the vast majority of Palestinian residents are not aware that others agree with them. Fifty-four percent said they thought the protests were driven by external parties, while 20 percent said they thought the demonstrations were a mix: both artificial and a genuine reflection of what the population thinks.
Anti-Hamas sentiment was also evident in the decline in support for the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, in which Hamas-led fighters killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
In December 2023, over 70 percent of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank supported the attack, a figure that remained consistent for months.
However, the Israeli military subsequently revealed in August that it uncovered documents showing Hamas had been secretly fabricating polling results from civilians of the war-torn enclave in order to show higher support for the Oct. 7 attack and hide that the Islamist organization enjoys far less support than previously thought.
Nonetheless, as of May 2025, the PCPSR poll found that just 50 percent now support the massacre, a considerable drop.
The number is even lower among Gazans, just 37 percent of whom responded that they support the Oct. 7 atrocities, while 58 percent said they oppose it. This decline in support is likely due to the devastation caused by the war that has been waged on Hamas in the enclave since then — which has resulted in heavy losses for the terrorist group while also displacing nearly all of Gaza’s civilian population.
Additionally, the perception that Hamas would win the war has dropped precipitously since it began. Just 23 percent of Gazans said they think Hamas will win the current war, while 29 percent responded they think Israel will win, and 46 percent put neither side will win. In contrast, 50 percent of Gazans thought Hamas would win back in December 2023, while 31 percent thought Israel would win.
When asked about what method would be best to achieve the end of the “Israeli occupation” and build a Palestinian state, 41 percent said armed struggle, 33 percent said negotiations, and 20 percent said peaceful resistance. Despite armed struggle having the support of a plurality of Palestinians, it is a large drop from December 2023, when 63 percent thought it was the best method to achieve independence.
Among Gazans in particular, negotiations are more popular than armed struggle. Forty percent responded they primarily support negotiations, 26 percent responded they support peaceful resistance, and 31 percent responded they support armed struggle.
Despite certain trends showing decreased support for Hamas, other data points presented a different picture. In the same survey, for example, 77 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza indicated they oppose Hamas disarming (85 percent in the West Bank and 64 percent in Gaza). This is likely due to the fact that 73 percent of respondents saif they do not think Israel will end the war if Hamas releases its hostages and 80 percent do not think Israel will end the war if Hamas disarms.
Additionally, when asked about what political parties they support, Hamas has more backing than Fatah, the main rival Palestinian political faction, among residents in both the West Bank and Gaza. But pluralities also said they do not know who they support.
PCPSR’s poll was conducted from May 1 to May 4, in interviews with 1,270 Palestinian adults from the West Bank and Gaza. The poll had a +/- 3.5 percent margin of error.
The post Half of Gazans Support Recent Anti-Hamas Protests, New Poll Finds first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.