Hamas has seen its popularity soar inside the Gaza Strip amid the cease-fire with Israel, with Palestinians supporting its crackdown on rampant crime — even if it results in brutal, daylight executions.
Around 51% of Gazans approve of Hamas’ performance restoring order to the Strip and facilitating the flow of humanitarian aid following months of chaos and looming famine, according to the latest poll by the West Bank-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.
The results are a stark contrast to where Hamas was a year ago, with only a 39% approval rating and growing internal protests that saw Palestinians line the streets of Gaza calling for the terrorists to cede power and end the war.
“Even those who oppose Hamas, the idea of security is something people want,” Gaza City resident Hazem Srour, 22, told the Wall Street Journal.
“It’s because we had a security breakdown with thefts, thuggery and lawlessness,” the young businessman explained. “No one could stop it except Hamas, and that’s why people support them.”
Prior to the US-backed cease-fire deal secured in October, more than 80% of the humanitarian aid arriving in Gaza from the United Nations and its partners was intercepted by hungry Gazans or armed gangs, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
Once Hamas’ armed police force re-emerged to secure the aid deliveries, thefts fell to around 5%, according to the UN agency.
Along with overseeing the flow of humanitarian aid into the 43% of Gaza currently under its control, Hamas has deployed its fighters to suppress the gangs that took advantage of the war to steal supplies and terrorize civilians.
The crackdown on crime has often led to brutal results, with Hamas fighters seen beating, torturing, and executing alleged criminals in broad daylight.
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While many Palestinians continue to criticize Hamas for causing the war that plunged the Strip into chaos in the first place, the majority welcome the security Hamas has provided.
Khalil Shikaki, the director of the center that produced the poll, said the latest survey came as a shock — with previous trends showing Hamas’ popularity plummeting.
Shikaki warned that the results indicate that, despite two years of fighting — and nearly 70,000 people dead in Gaza — Hamas is not only still alive but thriving.
“To some extent, this war has proven to Gazans and others that Israel has failed to defeat [Hamas],” Shikaki told the WSJ. “Hamas isn’t going to disappear tomorrow. We have to live with that.”
Along with finding Hamas popular with the majority of Gazans polled, the survey found that 52% of Gazans opposed the introduction of international soldiers into the Palestinian enclave to disarm Hamas.
The results could mean trouble for the US-Israeli effort to demilitarize the Gaza Strip, with Hamas maintaining that it will not cede its weapons until a pathway is set for Palestinian statehood.
