Palestinian poll finds big drop in support for Oct 7 attack

By Ali Sawafta

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - A majority of Gazans believe Hamas' decision to launch the Oct. 7 attack on Israel was incorrect, according to a poll published on Tuesday pointing to a big drop in backing for the assault that prompted Israel's devastating Gaza offensive.

The poll, conducted in early September by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), found that 57% of people surveyed in the Gaza Strip said the decision to launch the offensive was incorrect, while 39% said it was correct.

It marked the first time since Oct. 7 that a PSR poll found a majority of Gazan respondents judging the decision as incorrect. It was accompanied by a drop in support for the attack in the West Bank, though a majority of 64% of respondents there still thought it was the correct decision, the poll found.

PSR's previous poll, conducted in June, showed that 57% of respondents in Gaza thought the decision to be correct.

More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military offensive that has laid waste to the Gaza Strip since last October, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Israel launched its assault after the unprecedented Hamas raid which killed 1,200 people and resulted in another 250 being abducted, according to Israeli tallies.

PSR said it surveyed 1,200 people face-to-face, 790 of them in the West Bank and 410 in Gaza, with a 3.5% margin of error. 

PSR polls since the Oct. 7 attack have consistently shown a majority of respondents in both Gaza and the West Bank to believe the attack was a correct decision, with support generally greater in the West Bank than Gaza.

PSR said the poll released on Tuesday marked the first time since Oct 7. that its findings had shown simultaneously in the West Bank and Gaza a significant drop in the favorability of the attack and in expectations that Hamas will win the current war.    

Overall, the poll found a majority of 54% of respondents in Gaza and the West Bank thought the decision was correct.

In August, the Israeli military accused Hamas of mounting an effort to falsify the results of PSR polls to falsely show support for Hamas and Oct. 7, though the military said there was no evidence of PSR cooperating with Hamas.

PSR said it had taken the allegation seriously and investigated it. PSR said on Tuesday its analysis of the data did not flag any inconsistencies that would arise when data is arbitrarily altered, and that a review of quality control measures "convinced us that no data manipulation took place".

Support for Oct. 7 did not necessarily mean support for Hamas or killings or atrocities against civilians, PSR said, adding that "almost 90% of the public believes Hamas men did not commit the atrocities depicted in videos taken on that day".

The poll showed a drop in the number of respondents in Gaza who said they support Hamas to 35% from 38%. But the Islamist movement remained more popular than Fatah, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, in both in Gaza and the West Bank.        

(Writing by Tom Perry, Editing by William Maclean)