I had never been very interested in politics, especially not in politics far from Palestine or Israel. Since starting in the field of journalism, I have mostly written stories about society and culture, the arts, social life, and sports. And I never followed the American elections—until 2016, when CNN asked me to produce a report about the opinion of Gazans on the presidential candidates, among whom was Donald Trump. At the time, I was worried about how I would conduct those interviews. Are there any people in Gaza who care about these elections, I wondered? But I did the research, and I found people who did. They gave me very different opinions; to my surprise, many of the people around me held great interest in American politics. I met many people who expected Trump to win, and when he did, I was surprised yet again that they had been right.

Now the Palestinian street, in Gaza in particular, is looking at the U.S. presidency as a partner with Israel in its war here. Many have similar sentiments: They want a better president than Joe Biden, who encouraged the war on Gaza and never made any progress in stopping it.

Last week, I spoke with five fellow civilians about the vote. Four of them were displaced from the northern Gaza Strip to the southern city of Khan Yunis, where I have always lived. One, Rami Aman, is from Gaza but traveled to Egypt before the war, and has not been back since. Three asked me to withhold their last names out of fear of reprisal for what they might say. Their responses below have been translated and lightly edited for clarity.

We want a humane American president who cooperates in the cease-fire. We do not want a president who sends weapons to kill us. Former President Donald Trump was the reason for stopping the 2021 war and did not agree to its continuation for a long time. [Ed. note: The 2021 war in Gaza, between Israel and a coalition of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, lasted from May 6 to May 21. It occurred after Trump’s term, while Joe Biden was president.] But President Biden did not contribute to the cease-fire during the current war. Instead he encouraged its continuation and was the first supporter of Israel, even when it was bombing densely populated residential areas. We know that Biden’s rule will end up being regarded as the worst ever in American history.

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