Despite Hamas win, Palestinians want peace with Israel

A survey conducted within days of the Islamist group's landslide win in the parliamentary election showed 84 percent of Palestinians want a negotiated peace agreement with Israel.

And 86 percent said they want the moderate Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas to remain in his post when the radical movement forms a new government.

Perhaps more importantly in the wake of growing international pressure, nearly three-quarters want Hamas to drop its call for the destruction of Israel, said the survey by the Ramallah-based Near East Consulting institute.

Hamas has gained international notoriety with its campaign of suicide attacks against Israel, yet it is hugely popular in Palestinian territories where it provides a much-needed social safety net for many of the poorest residents.

However, rather than backing Hamas's tactics towards Israel, nearly three out of four (73 percent) respondents said they believed the radical party should "change its position on the elimination of the state of Israel".

And even among Hamas supporters, over three quarters of those polled (77 percent) admitted they would like to see a negotiated settlement to the conflict.

The findings were published as Human Rights Watch urged Hamas to immediately announce a complete halt to attacks on civilians.

"Hamas' new role in Palestinian politics makes it essential as well as opportune for it to make a commitment that it will not attack civilians under any circumstance," the group said in an open letter to the Hamas leadership.

"The intentional killings of civilians, including reprisal attacks, constitute war crimes and are crimes against humanity when conducted massively or systematically," Sarah Leah Whitson, Human Rights Watch's regional executive director, said in the letter.

Israel has ruled out any prospect of negotiating with a Hamas government which refuses to accept its right to exist and continues to advocate violence, even though Hamas has not carried out any attacks for over a year.

And both the White House and the European Union have expressed a similar position, saying their recognition of a Hamas-led authority would be conditional on the radical movement renouncing violence, recognising Israel's right to exist and pressing towards peace.

In contrast, a poll in an Israeli daily reflected a hardening of attitudes with only one in six (17.6 percent) people believing their government should conduct negotiations toward a final settlement with a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.

The figures in the Maariv daily showed a sharp drop from those published in a Yediot Aharonot poll conducted before last Wednesday's parliamentary election when 48 percent of respondents said Israel should talk to a Hamas-led government.

In Monday's survey, however, 52.7 percent said Israel should not engage in talks with such an authority.

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