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by true_religion 945 days ago
I think it’s not really fair to say “somewhat positive” is equivalent to supporting Hamas.

The site you source says in the first paragraph “ (62%) supported Hamas maintaining a ceasefire with Israel.”

Also from the same or similar reports.

73% believed the Hamas government to be corrupt.

> https://theconversation.com/hamas-was-unpopular-in-gaza-befo...

When asked how they would vote if presidential elections were held in Gaza and the ballot featured Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, and Marwan Barghouti, an imprisoned member of the central committee of Fatah, the party led by Abbas, only 24 percent of respondents said they would vote for Haniyeh

> https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/what-palestinians-real...

It does not seem that Hamas is actually popular, however the Palestinian people are not living in a free democracy and are not being given other candidates to evaluate.

1 comments

I think the key points are 1) your idea that "no one supports Hamas" is false, even taking the worst of those polls still shows significant minority support, and 2) Palestinian Islamic Jihad (and a West Bank offshoot of Hamas) are more popular than anyone in Gaza, and IIRC they're more militant than Hamas.
I think you’re being pedantic. This issue is not one that holds absolute, even if sometimes for the sake of rhetoric we use them.