By AFP and APPublished On 25 Apr 202625 Apr 2026Palestinians in central Gaza and the occupied West Bank have begun voting in municipal elections, the first local vote held since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.Polling stations opened at 7am (04:00 GMT) on Saturday for 70,000 eligible voters in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah area – the first electoral exercise in the besieged enclave in 20 years.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe vote in a single city in Gaza is largely symbolic, with officials calling it a “pilot”. Deir el-Balah was selected because it is one of the few areas in Gaza not destroyed by Israeli forces.Nearly 1.5 million registered voters in the occupied West Bank are also voting to determine the makeup of the local councils overseeing water, roads and electricity. The vote is seen as perfunctory, as official policy decisions in occupied areas are not made without Israeli approval.The elections come amid a tightly restricted political landscape and deep public disillusionment, as the Palestinian Authority (PA) seeks to project reform and legitimacy amid growing public frustration over corruption, political stagnation and the absence of national elections since 2006. A Palestinian woman casts her ballot at a polling station during municipal elections in the village of al-Badhan, north of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank [AFP]Most electoral lists are backed by President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement or independent candidates, with no official participation from Hamas, which controls parts of Gaza, or other political parties.Linking the occupied West Bank and GazaWith much of Gaza decimated by more than two years of war, the Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission chose to hold its first vote in Deir el-Balah. It had to improvise because it was unable to conduct traditional voter registration. Advertisemen …
