And the majority would want to work in Israel, according to a new study.

Gaza ProtestBut as the body count mounts under superior Israeli firepower, many Gazans are turning on Hamas. A Washington Institute study released this week which surveyed 450 people in Gaza found 70 percent support better relations with Israel. While the poll was conducted two weeks prior to Israel’s operation, some Gazans say those feelings have solidified in the wake of the ongoing destruction of their territory.

“We want to see the war stop,” Mohammad Hassounah told FoxNews.com from a hospital in Khan Yunis, a city in the southern part of the Gazan strip, where his young daughter was receiving treatment after inhaling rocket smoke. “We want a cease fire at any cost.”

Like 30-year-old political activist Hassounah, many of the residents of Gaza are paying a heavy price for the 18-day conflict between Hamas and Israel. He said the stench of death from more than 800 people killed in the Israeli onslaught has turned city streets into graveyards.

“You need to understand that Palestinian blood has been shed by Hamas itself,” a 28-year old journalist who asked not to be identified told FoxNews.com. “Living under Hamas is a tragedy.”

“Nobody can forgive Hamas for what they’re doing,” the journalist said. “No one can forgive Hamas for butchering Palestinians to get power. Most Gazans hate Hamas with a passion.”

There is fear of speaking out against Hamas, which is why many have stayed quiet until now, according to the source, an editor at a local Gazan media outlet.

“The only reason Hamas rules Gaza is because of its ruthless iron fist and military dictatorship,” he said. “We would love to have an independence from both Fatah and Hamas, who are profiting off the Palestinian people. We need to rule ourselves.”

The Washington Institute poll found that more than 70 percent of respondents said non-violent resistance had a “positive impact” and that they want Israel to open up its borders so they could go there to work.

“The study is quite telling,” the Institute’s David Pollack, who conducted the survey, told FoxNews.com. “The Gazans want jobs and practical things. They don’t want war and don’t support Hamas ideology.

“And with so many Palestinians actually saying they want peace and support an immediate cease fire, it means Hamas is imposing this war against Israel on its own people,” Pollack said.

While Gazans’ anger at Israel has almost certainly grown amid the Israeli incursion, which has seen the destruction of schools and hospitals, where Israel claims Hamas has hidden rockets, resentment toward Hamas surfaced in local reports this week after Hamas’ Qatar-based leader Khaled Mashaal refused to agree to a cease fire absent a lifting of blockades and a release of political prisoners.

“The conditions he put means there will never be an end to this war,” said Mudhar Zahran, a Palestinian politician, said from his home in the West Bank. “Gazans were cursing him out on social media and elsewhere when he said that.”

According to Zahran, Hamas has never been so unpopular in Gaza, although in the West Bank, where Palestinians are “not in the line of fire,” many may hail Mashaal as a hero.

“No normal human being can watch what’s going on and still support Hamas. I beg the Israeli army to understand that Hamas uses civilians, while their own leaders (like Mashaal) are hiding in Qatar.”

The Israeli army understands Hamas are using civilians. It is the rest of the world that needs to understand this.

7 thoughts on “Many Gazans Blaming Hamas”

  1. Hard Little Machine

    They must all be Fox News addicted T-Party hillbillies from the South though because you’ll never see this on CNN, MSNBC or the New York Times.

  2. Norman_In_New_York

    So now Israel accepts “humanitarian” ceasefires and Hamas rejects these frantic attempts by the diplomatic fraternity to bail them out. Such stupidity! Eff you, Hamas and other anti-Semites. You need psychiatric help, every effed up one of you.

  3. The rest of the world doesn’t understand this because they are not told this by the Hamas mouthpieces covering the war on the msm. If you believe the likes of Ben Wedeman, Operation Protective Edge has caused a massive surge in Hamas popularity in Gaza.

  4. Now I really do feel bad for the people of Gaza. But all this really means is that the rest of the World really needs to let Israel finish the job this time, because that’s the only way Gazans may be freed of the Hamasnsters.

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