Austin seemed not to know that the vast majority of Palestinians already support Hamas, at least in one recent opinion poll.
A wartime poll of Gaza and West Bank residents last month by Birzeit University’s Arab World for Research & Development (AWRAD) found that "the majority of (59%) strongly supported or (16%) supported to some extent the October 7 attacks carried by the Hamas-led factions." Hamas received the support of 76% of respondents. The poll is marred somewhat by the fact that there is no free speech in Hamas-run Gaza or the Palestinian Authority-run areas of the West Bank. Still, the results are notable.
The majority of Palestinians also voted for Hamas in the last Palestinian election of any kind, the parliamentary elections of 2006.