According to a public opinion poll published on Wednesday, the ruling Fatah party headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has improved its standing among Palestinians.

The findings of the poll show that overall support for Fatah has increased and is now higher than that of Hamas.

The poll, conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, shows that the rise in Fatah’s popularity is due to various steps taken by Israel over the past few weeks. These major steps include the approval of family reunifications and an increase in the number of Palestinians allowed to work in Israel.

The most recent poll, conducted from October 14-23, surveyed 1,800 Palestinians and has a 3% margin of error.

However, the gap between the two parties is smaller that is 5 percentage points in favour of Fatah than as compared to what the poll showed in March, that was at 13 percentage points in favour of Fatah.

“The current findings represent a huge improvement for Fatah compared to the findings of June 2021, when the gap between the two stood at 11 percentage points in favour of Hamas,” the centre said.

The poll indicated support for the concept of the two-state solution was 46%, compared with 36% last month whereas support for “armed struggle” against Israel declined from 48% to 44%.

The poll also found that 74% of Palestinians want Abbas to resign. Last month, demand for Abbas’s resignation stood at 78%.

If new presidential elections were to take place today with three candidates competing – Abbas, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti – Barghouti would receive the highest number of votes, the poll found.

If the competition was between Abbas and Haniyeh, the Hamas leader would receive 55% of the votes, compared with 39% for Abbas, according to the poll.

Image Courtesy: middle east monitor