The Palestinian Reality - Survey Shows 80% Support Terrorists

An opinion poll conducted by Birzeit University's Arab World for Research & Development (AWRAD) revealed that a majority of surveyed Palestinians in the West Bank support the October 7 massacre carried out by Hamas, and an even wider majority have a positive view of the various terrorist factions.

After over 1,200 people were brutally murdered and over 240 taken hostage, including children and elderly, many civilians tortured and raped, the survey showed that 68 percent in the West Bank strongly supported the massacres and kidnapping, while another 16 percent supported to some extent.

Asked on their view of various entities, respondents answered overwhelmingly in support of the military wings of the terrorist organizations; Palestinian Islamic Jihad with 84 percent; al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades with 80 percent, and al-Qassam Brigades with the highest 89 percent, though Hamas as a whole received a lower 76 percent.

Political bodies, the press, and and other countries were much less appraised. The governing Palestinian Authority was with only 10 percent, though the ruling party Fatah got a slightly higher 23 percent, and the UN received nine.

Russia was the most positively viewed country with 40 percent support, Iran received 32 percent, the UK got 3, and dead last were the United States and Israel with zero.

After the October 7 attacks, 98 percent felt more proud to be Palestinian. Due to the solidarity marches across the world, 78 percent "felt strongly or to some extent that there is hope for humanity in the future."

Furthermore, 65 percent identified the war as being against all Palestinians, and 98 percent reported that they will "never forgive and never forget."

As such, 68 percent indicated that their support for a two-state solution decreased, and 80 percent were more determined for a Palestinian state. However, 90 percent responded "coexistence is increasingly impossible."

AWRAD "surveyed 668 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, during the fourth week of the ongoing Gaza War. The team conducted the survey through tablet-assisted, face-to-face interviews," according to its press release.

It added that "the poll's sample includes all socioeconomic groups, ensuring equal representation of adult men and women, and is proportionately distributed across the West Bank and Gaza."

The poll's results are a sober reminder of how it was not just Hamas committing atrocities in the attack on Israel but also 'ordinary Palestinians' who joined in.

Videos, eyewitness accounts and the IDF reveal the Gaza residents who followed Hamas terrorists into Israel were mostly "young men with knives, overweight dads, and at least one elderly man on crutches," confirms an investigative report from the Washington Free Beacon.

Rabble "spontaneously" joined the terrorists for an additional wave of atrocities, the report said.

IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that large numbers of Gazans who were not members of any terrorist group entered Israel and participated in the atrocities.

"They did what you say they did," he told the publication.

The actual extent of civilians' involvement in the murders of more than 1,000 Israelis isn't clear but the fact it happened has left Israelis living near Gaza convinced, "Coexistence is dead, and Gaza must be crushed," the report said.

"The second wave of Arabs who came into the country were just as cruel as the terrorists of the first wave," Eshkol Regional Council mayor Gadi Yarkoni told the publication. "We saw that it was not only Hamas who came to slaughter us. It was all the residents of Gaza, including people who worked in our kibbutzim."

That region is adjacent to the Gaza border, and while some 1,400 residents were killed immediately in the attack, hundreds more were abducted..

He told the publication probably half of the estimated 3,000 Gazans in the assault were "civilians."

The Free Beacon explained, "According to a video that was posted online, Gazans used a bulldozer to tear down a section of Israel's border fence, and hundreds of unarmed men and boys--wearing T-shirts, baseball caps, sneakers, and flip-flops--crossed into the country. 

They came mostly on foot but also by bicycle, scooter, and motorcycle. Someone appears to have brought a donkey. Other online videos show ordinary Gazans taking selfies on and around Israeli tanks and ransacking a military base on the border. All the while, cries of 'Allahu Akbar' rang out."

Videos from communities of Be'erim, Nir Oz and others showed "dozens of ordinary-looking Gazans looting and taking part in killings..." the report said.

A former Israeli commando, Rax Cohen, survived Hamas' attack on the Nova music festival, where hundreds were killed.

He said in the report he hid in a bush with friends for almost seven hours, and watched as "Gazan civilians," men "wearing Adidas and armed only with knives and axes," raped and murdered a woman.

"They always laughed. I can't forget how they laughed," he told the Free Beacon.

Another witness, an Israeli soldier, said he encountered "amateur terrorists," without weapons beyond a knife.

"They are not good fighters, from what we have seen. But it was their numbers and their evil. That's all. You unleash a lot of people and say, 'Do what you want, and have fun. Enjoy the murder. And also loot,'" he said.

Other witness accounts cited in the report also described the "amateur" terrorists.

The report quoted one, explained, "The Hamas terrorists wore green camouflage or black uniforms and were armed with automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and hand grenades. The ordinary Gazans wore everyday clothing and came unarmed or carrying only knives, although some appeared to have taken firearms from fallen Israelis or Hamas terrorists."

Originally published at WND News Center - reposted with permission.