Palestinians in the Israel-occupied West Bank and a central area of besieged Gaza are heading to the polls for municipal elections in a first vote since Israel’s genocide in Gaza, marked by a narrow political field and widespread disillusionment.
Nearly 1.5 million people are registered to vote in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as 70,000 people in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah area on Saturday, according to the Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission.
Most electoral lists are aligned with president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party or running as independents.
There are no lists affiliated with Hamas.
In most cities, Fatah-backed candidates will run against independent lists headed by candidates from factions such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Mahmud Bader, a businessman from the northern occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem, where two adjacent refugee camps have been under Israeli military occupation for over a year, said he would vote despite having little hope for meaningful change.
“The (Israeli) occupation is the one that rules Tulkarem. It would only be an image shown to the international media — as if we have elections, a state or independence” he told AFP news agency.
Polling stations in the occupied West Bank will be open from 7:00 am (0400 GMT) to 7:00 pm, while in Deir al-Balah, polls will close at 5:00 pm to facilitate counting in daylight due to the lack of electricity in the war-devastated enclave, the elections commission told AFP.