Polls: It’s not just Hamas – it’s all Palestinians. 98% said Oct. 7 events “made them proud”
- Don't say "Hamas' massacre." Say "the Palestinian massacre." That's the way Palestinians see October 7.
Every poll of Palestinians since October 7, 2023, by both AWRAD – Arab World for Research and Development, and PSR – Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, shows that an overwhelming majority of Palestinians supported and continue to support the rapes, torture, beheadings, and murder of more than 1,100 people in southern Israel led by Hamas and its kidnapping of 250 hostages.
Significantly, the polls found that the support in the West Bank was higher than that of the Gaza Strip. Asked if they supported the attack on October 7, the first poll in November 2023 found West Bank support at 83%. Half a year later, in June 2024, after the destruction in Gaza, 73% still said that the decision to attack Israel was correct. In the Gaza Strip, two months into the war, support had already dropped to 63% and continued to fall to only 31% in March 2024, saying it was correct to attack. Astonishingly, the joy over the rape, torture, beheadings, and murder of Israelis was so great that even after much of Gaza was in rubble following Israel's counter-attack, for West Bank Arabs, that one day of horror inflicted on Israelis made the destruction of Gaza an acceptable price to pay.
The ongoing belief that the decision to attack was the right decision may possibly be explained by the results of a question that was asked only in the November 2023 poll by AWRAD:
"Considering the ongoing events do you feel a sense of pride as a Palestinian?"
Incredibly, 98% of Palestinians felt "pride as Palestinians."
The importance of this question is that it removed the destruction of Gaza from the equation. Even those 27% of Palestinians who didn't think attacking Israel was the "correct decision" did believe that attacking Israelis and murdering them freely for 24 hours still created "pride as Palestinians." Both in the West Bank and Gaza, 94% answered that the events made them "proud to a great extent," while another 3-4% were "proud to some extent."
| Region | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WB | GS | Total | ||||
| # | % | # | % | # | % | |
| Yes, to a great extent | 368 | 94.1% | 262 | 94.6% | 630 | 94.3% |
| Yes, to some extent | 16 | 4.1% | 9 | 3.2% | 25 | 3.7% |
| No, to some extent | 2 | 0.5% | 2 | 0.7% | 4 | 0.6% |
| No, not at all | 5 | 1.3% | 4 | 1.4% | 9 | 1.3% |
| No sure/DK | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0.0% |
| Total | 391 | 100.0% | 277 | 100.0% | 668 | 100.0% |
Another very significant question asked about Palestinian support for the various political parties. In the West Bank, in the poll prior to the October 7 massacre, Fatah (orange) was more than twice as popular as Hamas. Since the massacre, all three polls show Hamas (green) 2½ to 3 times more popular than Fatah.
| Fateh | Hamas | Third parties | None of the above/DK/NA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 23 | 26% | 12% | 10% | 52% |
| Dec 23 | 16% | 44% | 4% | 36% |
| Mar 24 | 12% | 35% | 7% | 46% |
| May 24 | 17% | 41% | 3% | 39% |
Israelis must accept the reality that the murder of Israelis and atrocities committed against Israelis is what creates popularity among Palestinians.
Another astonishing finding is that even though most of Hamas' terror army is destroyed and most of the infrastructures in the Gaza Strip are either destroyed or damaged, 79% of West Bank Palestinians still believe that Hamas will win the war. (See bottom line in 3rd chart below.) Even 48% of Gazans believe that Hamas will be victorious. To understand this, we must recognize what victory means both for Israel and Palestinians. For Israel, victory means destroying Hamas militarily and politically so that it can never rebuild and launch missiles into Israel or be a threat to commit another October 7. For Palestinians, if Hamas avoids destruction and the members who survive continue to impose their military and political rule on the Gazan population, that would be complete victory. Between March and June 2024, the belief that Hamas will win the war went up from 69% to 79%, and this corresponds to the period of intense international pressure on Israel to agree to an immediate cease-fire. Even within Israel, there were demonstrations calling for a cease-fire in exchange for the release of just a small number of the hostages. A cease-fire without the destruction of Hamas is all that Palestinians need to declare Hamas victorious. Palestinians are following these pressures around the world and in Israel and are convinced that a cease-fire along with a Hamas victory is forthcoming.
The following are screenshots of the poll results:
Based on captured Hamas documents, the Israeli military exposed how Hamas, as the ruler in Gaza, was able to falsify the March 2024 poll. The chart above showed Gaza Strip support for Hamas' attack at 71% whereas, in fact, after six months of war, support was only 30.7%. No one is questioning the accuracy of the support for Hamas in the West Bank where Fatah rules. Were Fatah able to tamper with the results in the West Bank it certainly would not have shown Hamas to be the party that is far more popular.
| In your view, was Hamas' decision to launch its offensive against Israel on 7 October a correct or incorrect one? | ||
| Fake result | Real result | |
| Correct | 71.3% | 30.7% |
| Incorrect | 23% | 64.4% |
| DK/NA | 6% | 4.7% |
| *Based on Hamas documents found in Gaza | ||
The most important conclusion from these polls is that it is time that Israelis and the world stop referring to the massacre on October 7 as "Hamas' massacre." Hamas perpetrated the massacre with the support of and in the name of the majority of Palestinians. The atrocities made 98% of Palestinians proud. Don't say "Hamas' massacre." Say "the Palestinian massacre." That's the way Palestinians see it.