On Saturday, one million Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and 70,000 voters from Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip were called to the polls to elect their municipal councilors. This ballot marked the first elections of any kind in the Gaza Strip since 2006 and the first Palestinian polls since the Gaza war began more than two years ago.
Election officials said on Sunday that loyalists of President Mahmoud Abbas won most races in the municipal elections. The vote included a city in the Gaza Strip run by rival Hamas for the first time in nearly two decades. While the vote was largely symbolic, it gave Palestinians an opportunity to express a desire for change, though voter turnout in Gaza remained low due to the ongoing impact of the genocide.
Palestinian authorities said the local elections in a single Gaza community and the Israeli-occupied West Bank were a success. They called the vote a step toward a long-delayed presidential election in the territories and eventual statehood.