Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza's Deir el-Balah area voted Saturday in municipal elections, the first since Israel's invasion of Gaza began in October 2023. Nearly 1.5 million people are registered to vote in the West Bank, with a further 70,000 eligible in Deir el-Balah, the only part of Gaza where the population has largely stayed in place amid the conflict. Polling stations in the West Bank closed at 7pm; Gaza polls closed at 5pm so ballots could be counted in daylight, as electricity is largely unavailable in the strip. The vote is narrow in scope. Most candidates are affiliated with President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party or run as independents. Hamas, which controls roughly half of Gaza, has no lists on the ballot. Municipal councils handle basic services, water, sanitation, local roads, and hold no legislative power, so the elections have limited direct effect on governance above the local level. The Palestinian Authority chose Deir el-Balah as a test case, with one political scientist describing it as an experiment to gauge the PA's own institutional capacity. Western and regional donors have increasingly tied support to visible reforms, making even local elections carry diplomatic weight. Voter sentiment was split. Some saw the vote as a statement of will; others, particularly in areas under active Israeli military control like Tulkarem, called it largely symbolic. Over 72,000 people have been reported killed in Gaza since October 2023, with infrastructure across the strip severely damaged.
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