Vast majority of Palestinians oppose Board of Peace plan calling for full Hamas disarmament as a condition for IDF withdrawal.
By David Rosenberg, World Israel News
Nearly three-quarters of Palestinians oppose the Board of Peace plan under which Hamas is obligated to surrender its weapons before Israel fully withdraws from the Gaza Strip, while half oppose a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a new Palestinian public opinion survey.
The poll, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), found that 72% of respondents said Hamas should not disarm before a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, compared with just 20% who said the terrorist group should relinquish its weapons first.
Opposition was considerably stronger in Judea and Samaria, where 79% rejected Hamas disarming before an Israeli withdrawal, compared with 62% in Gaza.
The findings indicate that Palestinian resistance to disarmament has remained high despite a substantial decline in Hamas’s popularity and growing skepticism about the results of armed conflict.
Ten months earlier, 69% opposed Hamas disarming, including 78% in Judea and Samaria and 55% in Gaza, while 29% supported disarmament.
The latest poll does not show that 72% oppose Hamas ever relinquishing its weapons. Rather, respondents were specifically asked whether the group should disarm before Israel completely withdraws from Gaza, the sequencing issue currently at the heart of negotiations over the next stage of President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan.
But the survey also found deep distrust of what would happen if Hamas surrendered its weapons.
Seventy-two percent said they believed that if Hamas disarmed, Israel would not completely withdraw and fighting in Gaza would eventually resume. Just 22% believed disarmament would be followed by a full Israeli withdrawal without a renewed war.
The findings come at a critical point in negotiations over Gaza’s future. Hamas has accepted a US-backed roadmap under which its weapons would eventually be removed from its control, while Israel and Hamas remain divided over when disarmament and Israeli withdrawals should occur.
Hamas has avoided describing its position as unconditional “disarmament,” instead agreeing to place weapons under the control of a US-backed Palestinian administration as part of a broader arrangement involving Israeli withdrawal.
Israel has demanded that Hamas be completely disarmed and Gaza demilitarized, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisting that Israel will not surrender its ability to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its military capabilities.
Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov has said the process must depend on verified steps rather than trust.
“Nobody is required to do anything – last of all Israel – before we actually have verified steps on the ground,” Mladenov said earlier this month.
“If there is verified decommissioning of weapons,” he added, Israel would then withdraw from the relevant areas of Gaza.
Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya has meanwhile linked the future of the group’s armed wing to Palestinian statehood. Earlier this year, he said Hamas could transform itself if an independent Palestinian state were established along the pre-1967 lines.
“All the experiences of people who fought against occupiers, when they became independent and obtained their rights and their state,” al-Hayya said, ultimately saw their armed forces become part of the national army.
The PCPSR poll indicates that the Palestinian public itself remains divided over the broader political goal of a two-state solution.
When respondents were simply asked whether they supported or opposed “the two-state solution,” 50% said they opposed it and 44% said they supported it. Support was essentially unchanged from October 2025, when 45% backed the proposal.
A majority also expressed doubt that two states remain achievable.
Fifty-eight percent said settlement expansion has made a two-state solution impractical, compared with 36% who said it remains viable. Sixty-four percent said there was little or no chance that an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel would be established within the next five years.
However, the poll produced a markedly different result when Palestinians were asked to choose among specific proposed outcomes.
Given three alternatives — a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders alongside Israel, a Palestinian-Israeli confederation, or a single democratic state with equal rights — 56% selected the two-state option based on the 1967 lines.
Support for that formulation reached 61% among Gaza residents and 52% in Judea and Samaria. Fourteen percent preferred a confederation and 10% chose a single state with equal rights, while 20% did not select any of the three.
The discrepancy suggests that opposition to the generic concept of a “two-state solution” does not necessarily translate into rejection of every specific two-state formula. Support rises substantially when the proposal is explicitly defined as a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria and Gaza based on the 1967 borders.
At the same time, the poll found a significant decline in support for “armed struggle” as the preferred means of obtaining Palestinian statehood.
Only 27% now view armed struggle as the most effective strategy, down from 41% ten months ago and the lowest level recorded by PCPSR in four years.
By contrast, 44% chose negotiations as the most effective route, up from 36% and the highest figure in four years. Another 19% preferred nonviolent popular resistance.
Palestinians remain evenly divided, however, when asked directly to assess the consequences of “armed resistance.”
Half agreed with the statement that “armed resistance” by groups such as Hamas “has failed to protect Palestinians or end the Israeli occupation” and instead contributed to the destruction of Gaza and refugee camps in Samaria. The other half disagreed.
The geographical divide was substantial: 65% of Gazans agreed that terrorism had failed, compared with only 35% of Judea and Samaria respondents.
Hamas itself has suffered a pronounced decline in support. Just 24% of Palestinians now identify with the group, down from 35% ten months ago. Fatah also stands at 24%, while 38% support neither major faction or did not express a preference.
Only 20% believe Hamas emerged victorious from the Gaza war, down from 39% ten months earlier, while 60% believe neither Israel nor Hamas won.
PCPSR interviewed 1,270 Palestinians face-to-face between August 5 and 8, including 830 in Judea and Samaria and 440 in the Gaza Strip. The survey has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
