JERUSALEM: The Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza has seen a sharp rise in popularity since its eight-day war with Israel and would win as many seats as Fatah if a Palestinian vote were held now, a poll found Monday.
The survey, carried out by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), comes after last month’s conflict, a top-level visit to Gaza by Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal and after the Palestinians successfully won upgraded UN membership.
The results also showed “a dramatic increase” in the level of optimism regarding the possibility of reconciliation between Hamas and its mainstream Fatah rival which is headed by president Mahmud Abbas and dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.
Some 39 percent of respondents said they believed political unity would be restored between the West Bank and Gaza in the near future, compared with just 14 percent in the previous survey in September.
Another 18 percent said they did not believe unity would ever be restored, down from 42 percent in September.
“The current percentage of optimism regarding reconciliation and the restoration of unity is the highest since separation,” PSR said, referring to the bitter division which erupted in June 2007 after Hamas forced Fatah loyalists out of Gaza.
Were a presidential election to be held today, pitting Abbas against Hamas’s Ismail Haniya, the Islamist prime minister would win, taking 48 percent of the vote, up from 40 percent three months ago, while the Palestinian president would take 45 percent, down from 51 percent in the previous poll.
“The percentage of vote for Haniya is the highest since Hamas’s electoral victory in 2006,” PSR said of the Islamists’ landslide victory in the last legislative elections.
Were elections to be held today, nearly eight out of 10 people — or 78 percent — said they would vote, with 35 percent saying they would vote for Hamas, and 36 percent for Fatah.
Hamas would receive 39 percent of the vote in Gaza, and 33 percent in the West Bank, while Fatah would receive an almost identical amount of support — 38 percent in Gaza and 34 percent in the West Bank.
“These results indicate a sharp increase in Hamas’s popularity compared to our September results when it stood at 28 percent (31 percent in Gaza and 25 percent in the West Bank),” it said.
The survey questioned 1,270 adults between December 13-15 across the West Bank and Gaza, and has a margin of error of three percent.
Hamas popularity soars after Gaza campaign
Hamas popularity soars after Gaza campaign
Syria says detained senior Daesh jihadist in Damascus
- The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers
DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities have arrested a senior Daesh group official in the Damascus region in a joint operation with a US-led international coalition, a security official said on Wednesday.
Taha Al-Zoubi, also known as Abu Omar Tabiya, an Daesh leader in Damascus, was detained with several of his men, General Ahmad Al-Dalati was reported as saying by state news agency SANA.
The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers and a US civilian that Washington said was carried out by a lone Daesh gunman in central Syria’s Palmyra.
“Our specialized units, in cooperation with the General Intelligence Directorate and and International Coalition forces, carried out a precise security operation targeting” an Daesh hideout, Dalati said.
On December 20, a Syria monitor said that five Daesh members were killed in US strikes in retaliation for the December 13 attack.
It was the first such incident since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was a security forces member who was due to be fired for his “extremist Islamist ideas.”
