Ramallah  - The popularity of the Islamic Hamas movement continues to decline among Palestinians, while that of its rival - the secular Fatah movement - remains unchanged, a new public opinion poll published Monday showed.

The poll said if parliamentary elections were held today, Fatah would receive 43 per cent of the vote, compared to 29 per cent for Hamas, and the movement's leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, would receive the support of 53 per cent of the voters, compared to 39 per cent for Hamas leader Ismail Haniya.

The survey, conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, said that while the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was expected to lead to an improvement in Hamas' standing, the fact that Gaza crossings with Egypt and Israel remained closed for most of the time and the situation in the Gaza Strip has not improved, had contributed to the decline in support for the Islamist movement.

The poll also said that Palestinians in the West Bank feel better personal and family security and had a positive evaluation of their overall conditions, compared to those living in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

The poll was conducted between August 28 and 30, a period that witnessed the consolidation of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, and the release of almost 200 Palestinian prisoners as an Israeli goodwill gesture to Abbas.

A representative sample of 1,270 Palestinian adults took part in the poll, which had a 3 per cent margin of error. (dpa)