Hamas’ popularity goes up among Palestinians as Israel fights to destroy the group

Palestinians, Israelis, and the Israelis: The Importance of a Resolution to the Post-Intifada Palestinian Problem

So much of what will happen after this war remains unclear. But what seems inevitable is that Hamas’s rule in the Gaza Strip will be over. The Palestinian Authority is increasingly invoked as the one entity that could step into the breach and bring unity back to Gaza and the West Bank. But for us Palestinians, that solution will have legitimacy only if there are fundamental changes in the authority’s structure — and that includes removing Mr. Abbas and his cronies from power.

During the first intifada of 1987, I became involved in politics as a 15, joining the Fatah Youth in Jerusalem. Several years later, and with other young Fatah leaders, I met Mahmoud Abbas in his office in Ramallah, West Bank. He was the No. 2 in the Palestine Liberation Organization back then. He was in his 50s while we were in our 20s. Despite the age gap, we always enjoyed spending time with him. “You are tomorrow’s leaders,” he would tell us.

“Palestinians do not support the harming of innocents,” Quran says. On the first day, many Palestinians were wondering if this was all true.

In the West Bank, too, there has been increased violence by Israeli settlers and more aggressive Israeli military raids into refugee camps that have killed more than 290 Palestinians since Oct. 7, according to United Nations figures.

Indeed this view — that Palestinians cannot co-exist with the state of Israel — was voiced to NPR again and again in the West Bank by shopkeepers, laborers, taxi drivers, farmers and government officials.

The moderate Palestinian Authority, which still supports the creation of a state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, has seen its popularity fall in the last few years because Palestinians see it collaborating with Israeli security officials.

Pollster Shikaki says this belief is reflected in surveys of Palestinians, a majority of whom now believe “if they want to become independent and free of Israeli occupation, they must resort to armed struggle.”

They told NPR that the two-state solution negotiations have brought no change to the situation for Palestinians despite the presence of diplomats from the US.

Drinking coffee in her living room, with her grandchildren playing nearby, Barghouti says there’s one more key reason Hamas has gained support. Many Palestinians now share the long-standing conviction of Hamas and its leadership that the time for peace talks and a negotiated settlement with Israel has ended, she says.

She says that anyone who is under the occupation has the right to fight. “Hamas’ reputation has grown, not only locally but on the international level.”

She was released from jail last month as part of the hostage-for-prisoner exchange and believes if not for Hamas’ pressure, she would not have been freed.

In November, Israel agreed to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, many of them held without criminal charges, in exchange for Hamas freeing some of the hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attack.

A previous poll conducted by the group Arab World for Research and Development in late October and early November found 68% of Palestinians in the West Bank supported Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

Fadi Quran, a West Bank activist and organizer who works for the progressive advocacy group Avaaz, says he is personally troubled by accounts of Hamas violence against women and children.

During more than two weeks of interviews in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, dozens of people told NPR they don’t accept evidence that Hamas targeted and killed civilians.

The Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,200 people is viewed in Israel and much of the West as an act of terrorism, that included the killing of women and children. The United States has long designated Hamas a terrorist organization.

“Hamas made the most important action against Israel since its existence,” says Nihad Abughosh, a Palestinian journalist and political analyst, who describes himself as a secular moderate.