section_path: Reactions/Occupied Palestinian territories
section_name: Occupied Palestinian territories
paragraph_text: Occupied Palestinian territories
  
  Initially, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas asserted the Palestinian people's right to self-defense against the "terror of settlers and occupation troops" and condemned the orders by Israel for residents to evacuate north Gaza, labeling it a "second Nakba". Later, Abbas rejected the killing of civilians on both sides, and said that the Palestinian Liberation Organization was the sole representative of the Palestinian people.
  
  A December 2023 poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 72% of respondents (52% of Gazans and 85% of West Bank residents) approved of the October 7 attacks. A 2024 follow-up poll found that two-thirds of respondents continued to approve of the attacks. About 90% of respondents did not believe that Hamas committed atrocities (killing women and children, sexual violence) during the October 7 attacks, seeing this as enemy propaganda. Half of respondents in Gaza expected Hamas to win the war, while a quarter expected Israel to win.