In Ramallah, the de facto Palestinian capital, everything is bubbling. Yellow taxis go up and down to the beat of horns; the young people laugh and shout at the school gates; shops open and customers shop, pedestrians walk in the middle of the Al-Manara Square roundabout (the epicenter of the city) while the police talk to each other, oblivious to everything that is happening.

And yet, Ramallah, the West Bank, this part of Palestine, is a ticking time bomb.

At least six young Palestinians between the ages of 17 and 29 were killed yesterday by Israeli fire after clashes in the Nur Shams refugee camp, near Tulkarem and the border with Israel. There are already 519 deaths this year, 111 minors, making it the most violent in the West Bank for two decades.

In the West Bank, everything seems to go further. And Hamas gains followers.

When asked if they approve of Hamas’s position in the war, 85% in the West Bank support it, and 52% in Gaza. In the West Bank, Hamas has tripled its support from three months ago, and if those who believe in violence as a way to resolve the conflict are 60% among Palestinians (up 10 points compared to before October 7), they reach 70% among West Bankers.

It is a poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Surveys (PCPSR, for its acronym in English) after conducting 1,231 interviews in the Strip (collected during the ceasefire) and the West Bank. And it has credit.

Its director, Khalil Shikaki, who speaks slowly and receives this newspaper in his office full of books in northern Ramallah, explains it this way: “[The rise of Hamas] we expected it, but not so much. It is a clear success and reflects what the West Bank is experiencing. It is expected to fall after the war, but we don’t know how much.”

He also explains that it happens mainly among young people aged 15 to 25, but not only. And especially if you suffer from unemployment – ??something that is becoming more and more common – and if there is settler violence or incursions by the Israeli army, which have been repeated this past year. And it affects that their support is greater in the south of the West Bank, in the Hebron area, a more populated, more religious area and closer to Gaza. “Even though they are everywhere”, he continues.

In Ramallah, on the other hand, it does not seem so. There is a war in Gaza, but the city barely sees a poster with photos criticizing: “We are not numbers” in Al-Manara square itself.

Malek is 26 years old and is sitting in a cafe five minutes from the dusty station that receives buses arriving from Jerusalem. He wears a French-style cap, a neatly trimmed beard, is blond and looks more like a resident of any European city than Ramallah. He shares a table with his friend Mohamed. They talk and take nothing. They are 26 years old, they say, and “yes, support for Hamas is growing, but not politically,” he says.

So how do they grow? “It’s nice to see people who give a little hope, and Hamas gives it, or thinks it gives it,” he continues. Is it because of the war in Gaza? “There is no hatred for Gaza. It’s sad and it’s tiring. Our country is like this, whether we like it or not. We know where we live. It is not impossible that the West Bank will be entrusted with it, but there is no fear”.

They don’t want to explain more. And trying to talk about it with someone on the streets of Ramallah involves getting a lot of nos: “I don’t speak English”; “politics, no”; “but if it’s about the war, no”.

“[In the polls] we only asked about what is thought, not what is done. And we do not see that support for violence has been transferred to behaviour, although violence is expected to grow. Not sustained violence as it was in the past, but with more specific cases of violence”, explains Shikaki.

The survey itself gives, however, another clue that is noticeable on the streets of Ramallah. This time, in an internal key: 60% of Palestinians support the dissolution of the PNA, the highest percentage ever seen in the poll to date. And after the resignation of Abbas, according to this center, 90% among the Palestinians, and it is even greater in the West Bank.

There is satisfaction, the other way around, with Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, and Yahya Sinwar, the leader in the Gaza Strip and their strongman in the war.

Fatah’s Marwan Barghouti is still the most popular figure among those polled.

What can you expect? Activism against the ANP? “We don’t see it and it can’t be ruled out,” Shikaki lets go without denying anything. Everything is open. And the reasons he mentions, some of them, can be summed up in one: “The ANP is absent”.

The ANP is criticized for not raising its voice more for Gaza. Even if it is not at the border with Egypt to help. Or that it is not felt in cases of settler violence. In addition, given the crisis that the region is suffering due to the Israeli road blockade and the absence of visitors and everything that has been added since October 7 – “We all suffer”, summed up resignedly a hotel receptionist -, the perception does not dissipate.

It is also remembered that a few days ago an ANP policeman was shot dead in Jenín. Armed groups possibly backed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad are suspected. A year ago a police station burned down. And the ANP bodies are even prevented from entering places such as the refugee camp – once again – in Jenín.

For now, these are all isolated cases. And you don’t know what you want. “There is no evidence that there should be an implosion. And it cannot be ruled out either. Maybe they want to create instability with Israel. We don’t know”, explains Shikaki.

And to ask for this in the streets is to find silence, once again.