section_path: Public opinion
section_name: Public opinion
paragraph_text: Public opinion
  
  A poll conducted in 2021 found that 53% of Palestinians believed Hamas was "most deserving of representing and leading the Palestinian people". Only 14% preferred Abbas's Fatah party. At the same time, a majority of Gazans also saw Hamas as corrupt, but were frightened to criticize the group. Polls conducted in September 2023 found that support for Hamas among Palestinians stood at around 27–31%.
  
  Public opinions of Hamas deteriorated after it took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Prior to the takeover, 62% of Palestinians had held a favorable view of the group, while a third had negative views. According to a 2014 Pew Research survey just prior to the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, only about a third had positive opinions, and more than half viewed Hamas negatively. Furthermore, 68% of Israeli Arabs viewed Hamas negatively. In July 2014, 65% of Lebanese viewed Hamas negatively. In Jordan and Egypt, roughly 60% viewed Hamas negatively, and in Turkey, 80% had a negative view of Hamas. In Tunisia, 42% had a negative view of Hamas, while 56% of Bangladeshis and 44% of Indonesians had a negative opinion of Hamas.
  
  Hamas popularity surged after the war in July–August 2014 with polls reporting that 81 percent of Palestinians felt that Hamas had "won" that war. A June 2021 opinion poll found that 46% of respondents in Saudi Arabia supported rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas during the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis. A March/April 2023 poll found that 60% of Jordanians viewed Hamas firing rockets at Israel at least somewhat positively.
  
  Following the October 7 attacks and the Gaza war that followed, Hamas's popularity in Gaza fell while increasing in the West Bank. A May 2024 poll by the Arab World for Research and Development, a West Bank-based independent organization, only a quarter of Gazans supported Hamas, while 76% of Palestinians in the West Bank views Hamas positively. Views on the attack among Gazans plummeted from 50% support to 24% in favor from a poll taken in November 2023 to the May 2024 poll. According to the poll conducted by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy from 14 November to 6 December 2023, 40% of Saudi participants expressed a positive view of Hamas, 95% of Saudis did not believe that Hamas killed civilians during the October 7 attacks, and only 16% of Saudis said Hamas should accept a two-state solution.