Poll: Palestinians Express Strong Support for October 7 Massacre, Hamas While Opposing Israel’s Existence

Afghan protesters burn a flag of Israel during an anti-Israel demonstration in Ghani Khel
SHAFIULLAH KAKAR/AFP via Getty Images
Joshua Klein

A recent poll shows significant Palestinian support for the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas and its October 7 massacre — the deadliest against Jewish people since the Nazi Holocaust, which saw the torture, rape, execution, and abduction of hundreds of Israeli civilians — while nearly three-quarters favor the elimination of Israel, with the creation of a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea” in its stead.

A recent poll by Birzeit University’s Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) shows strong Palestinian support for Hamas and the October 7 attack against Israel.

In the West Bank, 83.1% of Palestinian respondents supported the attack, while in Gaza, the figure was 63.6%. 

In the West Bank, just 6.9% opposed the attack, while 8.4% were neutral; and in Gaza only 20.9% opposed the attack, while 14.4% were neutral.

Overall, 75% of Palestinian respondents agreed with the attack, while 74.7% favored a single Palestinian state “from the river to the sea” in place of Israel.

Minimal differences were noted between Palestinian men (75.2%) and women (74.9%) in their support for the October 7 attack.

Respondents showed strong support for the military wings of various terrorist groups: Palestinian Islamic Jihad (84%), al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (80%), and al-Qassam Brigades (89%), with Hamas overall receiving 76%.

The Tuesday poll surveyed 668 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip “during the fourth week” of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war “through tablet-assisted, face-to-face interviews,” according to AWRAD’s press release, which noted that “the poll’s sample includes all socioeconomic groups, ensuring equal representation of adult men and women, and is proportionately distributed across the West Bank and Gaza.”

The survey ultimately revealed that Palestinian society shows greater unity on this issue than the global community. 

Last month, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) asserted, “Anyone who claims to support the people of Gaza but not Hamas should remember that Gazans elected Hamas.”

“At some point, some will have to reconcile themselves to the fact that while many Palestinian civilians did not take part in the massacre, many almost certainly cheered it,” wrote Erielle Davidson, senior policy analyst with JINSA. “The savagery and rot that pervades the Hamas terrorist is not exclusive to the terrorists themselves. Same animating hatred.”

World-renowned military historian and professor Dr. Victor Davis Hanson argued that the “picture of eager civilian involvement was apparently confirmed by videos that emerged from the Gazan street, as the Israeli captives and dead were spit upon, struck, and reviled by civilian mobs — at least in the heady days after news of the easy killing of Jews in Israeli but before the IDF aerial response.”

“No doubt public opposition to Hamas is impossible for Gazans; but the idea that a vast majority of civilians became sickened by Hamas and ashamed of their subhuman killing is so far not demonstrable,” he added.

Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis proclaimed, “If you look at how [Palestinian civilians] behave — not all of them are Hamas, but… none of them believe in Israel’s right to exist.”

Conservative pundit Brigitte Gabriel shared what she termed the “sad truth” that the Palestinians in Gaza “mostly support what Hamas is doing,” and even those who disagree with Hamas “hate the Jews so badly — they are collectively antisemites.”

Hamas’ massacre received broad support from Palestinian factions across the board, with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad participating in it, the “moderate” Fatah expressing support, and the official Palestinian Authority (PA) pledging to pay nearly $3 million to the families of slain Hamas terrorists who executed the massacre.

Palestinian politician Major General Issam Abu Bakr, who served as governor of the Palestinian city of Tulkarem, expressed his belief in unanimous support for the attack, saying “I do not think there is a single Palestinian who does not support what happened.” 

An additional poll from March carried out by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, found that the vast majority of Palestinians — nearly seventy percent — expressed support for the creation of armed terrorist groups to attack the Jewish state.

A previous poll conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) revealed that a whopping 93 percent of Palestinians hold antisemitic beliefs.

While the depth of support for Hamas among the millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza is difficult to accurately measure though polls, numerous videos depict a supportive response of the Palestinian street to news of the massacre.

As Breitbart News reported, immediately after word of the attacks got out, Palestinians at home and abroad were seen celebrating jubilantly.

Photos and videos uploaded to social media show Palestinian crowds greeting the returning executioners as heroes and burning seized Israeli cars in the streets of Gaza.

Others show Palestinians rallying, handing out sweets, and firing guns in the air.

Ordinary Palestinian civilians were not just seen celebrating the massacre, but actively participating in it, with full mobs captured on film pouring across the breached border to take part in the killing and raping of innocents, and the looting of their property.

According to IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus, significant numbers of Palestinians unaffiliated with terror groups entered Israel and participated in the atrocities alongside the terrorists.

In addition, Gadi Yarkoni, the mayor of the Eshkol Regional Council, told the Free Beacon that the “second wave of Arabs who came into the country were just as cruel as the terrorists of the first wave.” 

“We saw that it was not only Hamas who came to slaughter us,” he added. “It was all the residents of Gaza, including people who worked in our kibbutzim.”

However, in recent days, more and more Palestinians appear to be coming out against Hamas. 

In one clip, an elderly Palestinian fleeing his home lashes out at “Arab traitors,” while insisting “the Jews are kind with us.”

Another shows a man telling an Al-Jazeera reporter that Hamas can “go to hell and hide there instead.” 

In another clip, one Gaza resident is seen publicly chanting against Hamas in the midst of a public official’s press conference.

One woman in Gaza, mourning a loved one’s death, was seen openly blaming the “dogs of Hamas,” before being swiftly silenced.

The matter follows Hamas’ multi-pronged attack last month that saw some 3,000 terrorists burst into Israel by land, sea, and air and gun down participants at an outdoor music festival while others went door to door hunting for Jewish men, women, and children in local towns who were then subject to torture, rape, execution, immolation, and kidnapping.

The massacre, which drew parallels to scenes from the Nazi Holocaust, resulted in more than 1,200 dead inside the Jewish state, over 5,300 more wounded, and at least 241 hostages of all ages taken.

The vast majority of the victims are civilians and include dozens of American citizens.

Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

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