Occupied Jerusalem: Palestinians, inflamed by Israel's military offensive in Gaza, increasingly support the commitment of the governing Hamas movement to destroy the Jewish state, a survey released yesterday said.
The Ramallah-based Near East Consulting opinion poll showed 55 per cent of Palestinians believed Hamas should keep its vow to eliminate Israel, up from 44 per cent in late June and 25 per cent in January when the movement won parliamentary elections.
It also showed only a bare majority of Palestinians backed a peace settlement with Israel, well down from previous surveys.
"Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip perhaps combined in the past three weeks with the opening of a second front of hostilities ... in Lebanon have had a dramatic impact on Palestinian support for a peace settlement with Israel," Near East Consulting wrote.
Asked about the war in Lebanon, an overwhelming majority of those surveyed, or 97 per cent, said they backed Hezbollah's stance against Israel.
Israel launched an offensive in Gaza in late June after fighters including Hamas gunmen abducted a soldier in a raid from Gaza. Israeli forces struck at Hezbollah in Lebanon when the fighters seized two soldiers in a similar attack.
Only 51 per cent of Palestinians backed a peace pact with Israel, down from 76 per cent in late June, when the Gaza offensive erupted, added the poll, conducted early this month.
Hamas took office in March, prompting the West to cut direct assistance to the new government after the group refused to drop the call in its charter for Israel's destruction and renounce violence.
Despite a drop in support for a peace deal with Israel, 78 per cent of Palestinians backed a ceasefire with the Jewish state, up from 70 per cent five weeks ago, the survey showed.
It said 91 per cent of Palestinians believed the soldier captured by the fighters from Gaza should not be released unconditionally. Israel had rejected Hamas demands for a prisoner exchange.
Near East Consulting, based in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said more than 700 people took part in the survey.
