Municipal elections took place on Saturday across the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, marking the first ballots in the Palestinian territories since the October 2023 Israel-Hamas war. The Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission said nearly 1.5 million people in the West Bank and about 70,000 in Gaza were eligible to vote.
Gaza has not held elections since the 2006 legislative vote won by Hamas, which seized control of most of the enclave from the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah in 2007. The West Bank also missed municipal votes in the period that included the 2023 war.
Most competing lists are aligned with President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party or are independent. There were no Hamas-affiliated lists on the ballot, although polling by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research indicates Hamas remains the most popular faction in both Gaza and the West Bank. In several West Bank cities, including Nablus and Ramallah, only one electoral list was submitted and therefore won automatically without a vote.
In the West Bank, voters were choosing local councils that manage services such as water, roads and electricity; these councils do not pass legislation. The Gaza voting was limited and largely symbolic, confined to Deir al-Balah, one of the few parts of the enclave that was not subject to an Israeli ground invasion. The PA said it hoped the elections would reinforce its claim to authority over Gaza after its 2007 ouster, but it continues to face allegations of widespread corruption.
Two years of war that followed Hamas-led attacks on Israel in October 2023 have devastated Gaza. The territory’s Health Ministry reports more than 72,000 deaths and says public infrastructure, sanitation and health services are struggling to function.
UN coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov praised the commission for organizing a credible process and called the elections an important opportunity for Palestinians to exercise democratic rights during a difficult period. Fareed Taamallah, a spokesperson for the Elections Commission, described the vote as reflecting Palestinians’ determination to remain on their land, develop their country and politically link the West Bank and Gaza. Many Palestinians say political unity of the two territories is essential for any future bid for statehood.
Israel’s government opposes restoring PA rule in Gaza, while many European and Arab governments broadly support an eventual PA return and the goal of an independent Palestinian state. The commission said it did not coordinate directly with Israel or Hamas in organizing the Gaza vote. Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, Germany and others. COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for humanitarian affairs in Gaza, did not respond to requests about allowing election materials into the territory.
Polling stations in the West Bank were scheduled to close at 7 p.m. local time (1600 GMT), while polls in Deir al-Balah were set to close at 5 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) because of the lack of electricity in the war-ravaged area.