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The popularity of the Islamic militant group, Hamas, among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip may be on the decline. Hamas won elections in 2006, but as Linda Gradstein reports, Gazans are not happy with its leadership.

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MARCO WERMAN: We stay in the Middle East for our next story.  It’s set in the Gaza strip.  Gaza has had more than its share of troubles and Israeli sanctions against the Palestinian territory have added to the misery.  But Gazans are increasingly directing their anger at their own leadership.  The Islamic militant group Hamas won elections in Gaza in 2006.  Hamas forcibly ousted its rival party the following year and its ruled Gaza ever since.  But Linda Gradstein reports that Hamas’ popularity in the territory seems to be waning.

LINDA GRADSTEIN: Abir Salha is a tall, physically imposing, educated woman.  She runs a preschool for 130 poor children in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza.  Salha says Hamas leaders have done little to help the one and a half million Palestinians in this densely populated strip of land.

ABIR SALHA:  [through interpreter] We want to change.  We want them to go and have news ones.

LINDA GRADSTEIN: Salha says she feels suffocated.  Then she gets nervous and ends the conversation.  She says she’s afraid that Hamas might harm her or her children for her views.  Anger at Israel here is nothing new.  Israel’s siege of Gaza that began in 2005 and deepened after Hamas captured an Israeli solder in 2006 has made life hard here.  Last year’s war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza battered Gazans even further.  Gazans are still angry at Israel, but they’re also angry at Hamas according to [phonetic] Al Azhar University Professor, [phonetic] Mujeimer Abusaddah.

MUJEIMER ABUSADDAH:  Many, many of the Palestinians have negative attitude toward Hamas because Hamas has not been able to deliver its promises to the Palestinians.  When Hamas ran for election in 2006 they promised the Palestinians change and reform.  Change has already happened, but we don’t really have reform as they have promised.  Things have gotten even worse.  The situation is unbearable with levels of poverty and unemployment are very high.

LINDA GRADSTEIN: Public pressure has forced Hamas to change its policies, especially on religious issues.  Last year Hamas canceled a decree that required all female lawyers to wear the Hijab, or head scarf.  Hamas also rolled back a similar effort to impose long skirts and head coverings on high school girls.  Professor Absuddah says Hamas is feeling some political heat.

MUJEIMER ABUSADDAH:  Hamas knows that it was the Palestinian people who voted for Hamas.  It was the Palestinian people who brought Hamas to power. Hamas is very vulnerable we say, to Palestinian public opinion because any election, if Hamas does not improve its image, if Hamas does not improve the situation in Gaza, and definitely Hamas is not going to do well in any Palestinian legislative or presidential election in the future.

LINDA GRADSTEIN: But there is no real alternative to Hamas in Gaza.  Many senior officials of the rival Futa party fled the territory after the 2007 clashes between Hamas and Futa.  Hamas controls the police and security apparatus here.  Hamas is widely believe to torture its political opponents.  A few weeks ago Hamas seemed about to make a move that would have surely been popular.  Israeli and Palestinian news reports said the two sides were on the verge of a deal that would free 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, most from Hamas, in exchange for the Israeli solder Gilad Shalit.  There were also reports that Israel would lift the siege on Gaza and life here would improve after the deal went through.  But Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, got cold feet says Hamas Senior Advisor Ahmed Yusif.

AHMED YUSIF:  I do believe that the Israelis and maybe, I don’t know, somebody actually give them a hint this kind of deal will give some kind of giving Hamas a boost or something like this.  Because yes there was progress, then all of a sudden Netanyahu changed his mind regarding certain things.

LINDA GRADSTEIN: Yusif says Palestinians in Gaza still support Hamas, but even he senses that their enthusiasm for the movement is slipping.

AHMED YUSIF:  Because of the sanction, the pressure and the suffering, the people might turn, if there is election, will vote for somebody else, not for Hamas.

LINDA GRADSTEIN: Elections for a new Palestinian President and Parliament were supposed to be held this week, but they’ve been put on hold.  Yusif says he hopes that Futa and Hamas will overcome their differences and agree on elections in June.  By then, he says, maybe Israel and Hamas will have reached a deal on a prisoner exchange, the borders will be open, and Hamas will win a large majority again.  For The World, I’m Linda Gradstein, the Gaza strip.

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