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Hamas's popularity among Palestinians has risen sharply since a three-week Israeli war in January devastated the Gaza Strip, an opinion poll released Monday showed.
If an election were held today, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh would beat Mahmoud Abbas, the Western-backed Palestinian president and leader of Fatah who advocates a peace deal with Israel.
The face-to-face poll of 1,270 people by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research was conducted on March 5-7 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as the factions tried to reach agreement on a unity government with Egyptian mediation.
Hamas won a Palestinian parliamentary election in 2006 and seized control of the Gaza Strip the next year after fighting with Fatah.
Israel responded by tightening its blockade of the coastal enclave, increasing hardships for its 1.5 million residents.
The January war, which Israel launched with the stated aim of stopping cross-border rocket fire by fighters, killed more than 1,300 Palestinians, destroyed 5,000 homes and left much of Gaza's governmental and economic infrastructure in ruins.
The survey said Haniyeh would garner 47 percent support, beating Abbas with 45 percent, if a presidential election was held today. Three months ago, Abbas received 48 percent and Haniyeh 38 percent.
The most important priority for Palestinians today, in the eyes of 46 percent of the sample, should be the unification of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
PHOTO CAPTION
A Hamas policeman welcomes a member of a British aid convoy upon their arrival at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip March 9, 2009.
Reuters
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