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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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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.