The current Israeli counteroffensive against Gaza is stirring support for Hamas in the Fatah-controlled West Bank. Fatah-backed security forces have already had to break up large pro-Hamas rallies in both Hebron and Ramallah—using tear gas against their own people for the first time in Palestinian history. Such heavy-handed crowd-control techniques, however, have only served to intensify resentment against Fatah.

“The Palestinian Authority is preventing people from going to the streets,” said one angry Palestinian lawyer living in the West Bank. “They only want their point of view to pertain, and they share the view of Israel and the United States that Hamas should be crushed. They only want Fatah here, they don’t want anyone else, despite the fact that 80 percent of the people are in total solidarity with Gaza and against the repression of the Palestinian Authority.”

PA President Mahmoud Abbas plays the part of a wily fox to Hamas’s roaring lion. He has claimed before that it is a Palestinian right to raise rifles against Israeli occupiers, but he generally prefers to use diplomatic negotiations and political connections to swindle Israel out of its land. His outspoken opposition to Hamas’s more militant outlooks, however, is now making him very unpopular in the eyes of many Palestinians.

One group of protesters in Hebron went so far as to chant, “Abbas, you should know, Hebron is with Hamas.”

In addition to growing dissent among the masses against the Fatah-backed government, an increasing number of Fatah leaders have broken ranks and given their support to Hamas.

“Fatah and its men are an integral part of this battle and in confronting the aggression,” said imprisoned Fatah official Marwan Barghouti in a message from the Israeli prison where he is serving five life terms for murder. “The Israeli aggression is directed against all the Palestinians and their cause. This is the time to join forces in combating the Israeli occupation.”

Sources close to Hamas claim that dozens of members of Fatah’s armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, have already broken ranks with Abbas and joined Hamas’s fight against Israel. Five of these radical militants have been wounded while fighting Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. Other Islamic militant groups known to be aiding Hamas include Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and the Popular Front for Palestinian liberation.

With Palestinian sympathy for Hamas on the upswing, it would bode ill for Fatah if Hamas ever decided to stage a coup in the West Bank similar to the one it used in 2007 to conquer Gaza. Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has already declared a “third intifada” designed to overthrow Fatah in the West Bank. Nothing has come of this declaration due to the fact that Hamas currently has more than it can handle battling Israeli forces. If Hamas still has strength left after its current fight with Israel is over, however, it is completely possible that tensions could erupt in the West Bank.

Just like the Iranian mullahs who fund them, Hamas wants to control Gaza, the West Bank, and all Israel. Above all, it wants to possess and control Jerusalem. For information on how Iran is using both Hezbollah and Hamas as proxies to achieve these goals, read “Iran Conquered Lebanon … Now What?”