TEHRAN – Despite over two years of U.S.-backed genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip, American media reports Hamas has seen its popularity increase.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Hamas’s growing popularity presents a challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to “bring peace to Gaza by disarming the movement.”

Security has been a key factor in this shift. Over the past month, as the ceasefire took hold and Israeli occupation forces withdrew to the so-called “Yellow Line”, Hamas resistance fighters reappeared in the streets as police and internal security units. They began patrolling neighborhoods and targeting criminal gangs.

Many residents, including some who oppose Hamas, have welcomed the sharp decline in theft and looting.

Hazem Sarour, a businessman in Gaza City, said: “Even people who don’t support Hamas want security. We saw a complete breakdown, robberies, bullying, and lawlessness. No one could stop it except Hamas, and that’s why people back them.”

Before the truce, more than 80% of humanitarian aid from the UN and partner agencies was intercepted or stolen by armed gangs in Gaza, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

With Hamas police back on the streets, theft of aid shipments dropped to 5% last month, OCHA said, attributing the change to increased aid deliveries and the efforts of “Hamas’s blue police.”

The Journal noted that lower crime rates, combined with continued armed resistance against the Israeli occupation regime, have allowed Hamas to rebuild its public image and tighten its control over the territory. Polls, analysts, and residents across Gaza indicate that many Palestinians now view the group more pragmatically.

A poll released last month by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 51% of Gaza residents had a positive view of Hamas’s wartime performance, up from 43% in May and 39% a little over a year earlier. 

In a separate question on political party support in a hypothetical election, 41% of Gazans said they would vote for Hamas, a four-point increase over the previous five months and the highest level since December 2023 amid a genocidal campaign in the Strip. 

The Journal warned that rising support for Hamas could complicate efforts to move Trump’s plan into its second phase, which calls for the resistance movement to disarm and relinquish any role in Gaza’s future governance.

Poll results show Palestinians are divided on this point: 55% opposed the plan’s call to disarm Hamas, while 44% supported it. A similar slim majority, 52% of Gaza residents, opposed deploying an international force tasked with disarming the movement.

Palestinian resistance factions have strongly rejected a proposed American UN Security Council plan to deploy foreign forces in Gaza, urging Algeria, a non-permanent member of the Council, to stand against the move. 

Palestinian factions warned of “the grave danger posed by the U.S. draft resolution” which they said was “an attempt to impose international guardianship over the territory and to advance a vision aligned with the (Zionist) occupation.”

The factions stressed that the proposed framework paves the way for external dominance over Palestinian national decision-making by transferring Gaza’s administration and reconstruction to a supranational international body with broad authorities, effectively stripping Palestinians of their right to manage their own affairs.

In a statement, the factions also rejected any clause related to disarming Gaza or infringing upon the Palestinian people’s right to resist and defend themselves. “Rights” it said, “are legitimate and internationally recognized.”

They stressed that any discussion regarding arms must remain an internal national matter tied to a political process that guarantees ending the Israeli regime’s occupation, establishing a state, and achieving self-determination.