Palestinian Public Opinion Polls No. 37

Abstract

By the end of the truce period that was announced between Israel and ‎Hamas through Egyptian ‎mediation, Israel launched an unprecedented ‎attack on Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip that ‎targeted animate and ‎inanimate objects bequeathing huge destruction the results of which will ‎‎continue for years to come.‎ No sooner had the aggression against Gaza ceased, than the talk about ‎rebuilding Gaza began; the ‎rebuilding of Gaza became another point of ‎controversy added to the letters of Palestinian internal ‎split. The ‎Palestinian split did not end with the destruction of Gaza despite talks ‎about a ‎Palestinian-Palestinian debate; split is susceptible to be ‎intensified as the declarations made by ‎some Palestinian officials ‎indicate. The Palestinian question, thus, is totally driven into the maze of ‎‎Arab and regional differences and the Palestinian decision making ‎process is no longer purely and ‎genuinely Palestinian.‎ On the other side of the Gaza issue, several Arab and foreign countries ‎are paying tremendous ‎efforts to restore truce to the Gaza Strip based on ‎new conditions. Hamas insists on opening Rafah ‎crossing first to be ‎followed be opening the other crossings. Israel rejects Hamas’ demands ‎with ‎reference to the crossings. Israel insists on freeing prisoner of war ‎Gilad Shalit as a precondition to ‎discuss the other issues though the ‎Egyptian mediation.‎