Hamas Loses in Palestinian Infighting
The gun battles and exchanges of mortars and explosives ravaging the streets of Gaza are costing Hamas popular support among Palestinians, a leading Palestinian pollster said on Tuesday.
Elias Kokali, of the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO), based in the West Bank, said Fatah would naturally benefit from Hamas’s decline.
“In general, Palestinians are against the fighting between the factions,” Kokali said, adding that 78 percent of Palestinians were unaffiliated with either side.
With the exception of those who are partisan in favor of Hamas, “the majority of Palestinians are disappointed by Hamas, and feel that Hamas is incapable of running the government,” the analyst added, citing a poll conducted by PCPO, due to be released in two days.
“For the time being, there are only two alternatives for Palestinians, and if they don’t vote for Hamas, they will vote for Fatah,” Kokali said.
Asked whether Hamas was trying push Fatah out of Gaza, Kokali said that such a goal was unfeasible, adding: “Every side has its support and power, and each wants more power than the other.”
“There are people on both sides who benefit from the continuation of fighting,” he added.
Jabar Wishah, of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza, said that the Hamas-Fatah war was “was more like a gang war than a battle between militants. We explicitly say that.”
“I think this a factional clash motivated by self-interest,” Wishah said. “It’s far away from the national interest. The national interest is to put an end to these clashes and to the suffering caused when militant groups attack,” he added.
Wishah said that the situation in Gaza has gotten so bad that the PCHR has had to close its office there.
“What concerns people here is the complete ambiguity and uncertainty, because uncertainty is more dangerous than danger,” Wishah said. “For the first time in the Palestinian Authority’s existence we closed our office due to the curfews,” he added. “People here expect the worst and they say that what we have now is bad enough,” Wishah said.
Asked how many people he estimated have been killed in the fighting, Wishah replied that “there is no exact figure up to now because the situation is deteriorating. It’s not a matter of how many, it’s a matter of why. Even a single person who is killed or who is injured or victimized is a story. So I’m not in favor of counting casualties because every single human being has his her dignity should be respected.”
“The most serious concern people here have is that they are uncertain that they will come back safely if they go out. So I think we are paying highly for this factionally-motivated conflict,” he added.
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Hey Mohammed, is this an article you wrote or is it a translation or quote from something else?
We’re getting daily updates at work from our staffpeople in Gaza, the situation seems very dire and it’s hard to know what to believe (ie reports of execution-style murders of surrendering Fateh fighters).
Courage.
Hi Mariam,
It was a quote from Palestinan analysts. The situation on ground is so severe. I have friends in Gaza who imprisoned their families at home fearing to die in cross fire. Life is hill there. All redlines vanished between supposed brothers in Palestinian territories. I know many Palestinians who prefer to live under Israeli occupation instead after seeing the brutality of supposed Muslims.
May God save us