Palestinian voters made history Saturday as they participated in municipal elections that included Gaza for the first time in more than 22 years. The voting occurred exclusively in Deir al-Balah, a central Gaza city, while Hamas – the territory’s de facto ruler – chose not to participate directly.
Election officials set up 12 voting locations using fiberglass tents throughout Deir al-Balah on Saturday morning. The campaign period lasted 14 days, running from April 10 through April 24.
Officials selected Deir al-Balah for two key reasons. The city experienced less destruction during the ongoing conflict compared to Gaza City, Khan Yunis, or Rafah, making election logistics feasible. Additionally, the city remains under Hamas administration on the western side of the Yellow Line that divides Gaza, allowing the Palestinian Authority to establish presence in Hamas-controlled territory without challenging the approximately 53% of the Strip now under Israeli military control.
No voting occurred in areas under Israeli control.
The election carried significance beyond the city’s size. An entire generation of Gaza residents has reached adulthood without ever voting. Anyone younger than 39 has never experienced casting a ballot.
Hamas has directly appointed all mayors and council members across Gaza municipalities since 2007, treating local leadership as internal appointments rather than allowing residents to choose. Saturday marked the first time in 22 years that a Gaza community selected its own leaders through voting. Despite Hamas police continuing to patrol Deir al-Balah streets, the organization stepped aside during the election process. Hamas officers secured polling station perimeters, though election officials stated they had not coordinated directly with either Hamas or Israel beforehand.
Some observers criticized the election timing, arguing that stepping aside did not guarantee voter freedom. Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Gaza-born senior resident fellow at the Atlantic Council who leads the council’s Realign for Palestine project, described the decision to conduct elections now as “extremely reckless and irresponsible.” In social media posts before the vote, Alkhatib stated that “Gazans are being arrested, jailed, tortured, shot, and killed daily for social media posts and anything they say that’s perceived as being critical of Hamas,” arguing elections should wait until after the Board of Peace enforces disarmament.
“I’m very happy to be voting in local elections for the first time in my life,” Ahmed al-Buhaisi, a Deir al-Balah resident, told The Media Line. “This is a moment we have been waiting for a long time, because every citizen has the right to have a voice in choosing who represents them. This right has been denied to us for more than two decades. Today, I feel I am exercising my natural role as a citizen. I hope this step marks a real beginning for change.”
The elections covered 183 West Bank councils plus Deir al-Balah. Approximately 522,000 of roughly 1.03 million eligible Palestinians voted, according to the Central Elections Commission. Another 197 councils had uncontested candidates, primarily from Fatah.
Commission Chair Rami Hamdallah announced final results Sunday. In Deir al-Balah, the “Deir al-Balah Renaissance” list, supported by Abbas’ Fatah movement, captured six of 15 council seats. The “Future of Deir al-Balah” list earned five seats. The “Peace and Building” list secured two seats. A fourth list, “Deir al-Balah Brings Us Together,” widely viewed by residents and analysts as Hamas-aligned, won two seats. The newly elected council will select the mayor from among its members.
For the Palestinian Authority, conducting simultaneous elections in the West Bank and Deir al-Balah demonstrated unified governance across both territories. The Fatah-led authority has lacked real influence in Gaza since Hamas expelled it in 2007. The PA used the occasion to assert its position as the sole Palestinian institution capable of organizing voting in both territories simultaneously.
Voter participation in Deir al-Balah reached 22.7%, with 15,962 of 70,449 eligible voters casting ballots – the lowest rate among Palestinian voting areas. Hamdallah attributed the low figure to an outdated civil registry that fails to account for thousands of residents killed in the war or entire families who fled the city. West Bank turnout hit 56%, slightly below the 58% recorded in the previous local elections in 2022, the most recent time West Bank Palestinians voted. Salfit Governorate recorded the highest turnout at 71%.
Polls closed at 5 p.m. in Deir al-Balah, two hours earlier than in the West Bank, allowing vote counting to complete before darkness in a city lacking reliable electricity. Gaza workers constructed approximately 100 wooden ballot boxes from locally available materials and printed ballots locally after Israeli authorities blocked standard election supplies at border crossings, the commission reported. Officials used blue ink remaining from last year’s polio vaccination campaign to mark voters’ fingers.
The election proceeded under new legislation that Abbas signed on November 19, 2025. Decree-Law No. 23 of 2025 reduced the candidacy age to 23 to increase youth participation, established four-year council terms, and required candidates to pledge commitment to the Palestine Liberation Organization program, which includes recognizing Israel and accepting previous PLO agreements.
Hamas, which did not field candidates, condemned the legislation in December as an attempt to exclude the movement and independents from local government. Twenty-eight Palestinian civil society organizations called the PLO-pledge requirement a restriction on political expression. Each of the four Deir al-Balah lists presented 15 candidates, with at least four women on each slate as required by the new law. Across the West Bank, 3,773 candidates competed for municipal seats and 1,358 for village councils. Women comprised about one-third of declared candidates and led eight lists. Women won 33% of contested council seats overall.
President Mahmoud Abbas, 90, voted at the al-Mustaqbal al-Saleh School in al-Bireh, the West Bank city adjacent to the Palestinian Authority’s Ramallah headquarters. “We are very pleased that we are able to practice democracy despite all the difficulties we face locally and internationally,” he told reporters at the polling station. He announced the local elections would be followed this year by Fatah movement elections and a Palestinian National Council vote, his first public commitment to a national-level electoral calendar in two decades. Abbas was last elected to a four-year term in 2005 and has not faced a presidential election since.
Yusuf al-Slaibi, who supervised the polling station at Anan Stadium in Deir al-Balah, told the Palestinian Authority’s official Wafa news agency that turnout was “satisfactory” considering the circumstances. Wafa reported heavier participation in the city’s western neighborhoods, including the refugee camp, central mosque area, and Nakhil Street, compared to eastern polling stations near Salah al-Din Street, which runs along the Strip’s main north-south corridor closer to the Yellow Line.
The election took place in a city that lost its previous mayor a year and a half ago. In December 2024, an Israeli airstrike destroyed the Deir al-Balah municipality building, killing Mayor Diab al-Jarou and staff members. The new council will govern a city of approximately 75,000 residents that now shelters hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians from throughout the Strip.
The Media Line interviewed Faten Harb, a winning candidate on the Renaissance list, who described holding simultaneous elections in the West Bank and Gaza as “an important development and reflects Palestinian unity.” She highlighted urgent needs in the city, including basic services and humanitarian conditions.
“We face major challenges in Deir al-Balah, with urgent priorities such as securing water and electricity, improving sewage services, tackling the spread of rodents, and dealing with solid waste,” Harb said.
“In addition, the displacement crisis remains one of the most pressing challenges,” she added. “The city hosts more than 40,000 displaced people, which requires special attention to ensure they are accommodated and that their basic needs are met.”
The elections also renewed longstanding questions about political control in Gaza and Hamas’ role, as the organization has governed the Strip since its armed takeover in 2007.
Gaza’s previous local elections occurred in late 2004 and early 2005, before Hamas won the January 2006 legislative election. International donors refused to recognize the Hamas-led government, and in June 2007, the movement seized complete control of the Strip following armed conflicts with Fatah forces. The territories have conducted no national elections since then. The division between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority has repeatedly delayed or prevented municipal voting in Gaza over the years.
Despite boycotting the current election and not presenting official candidates, Hamas remained central to how many residents interpreted the vote. Two candidates on “Deir al-Balah Brings Us Together” had previously been photographed with Hamas officials or Hamas-run police members, according to the Center for Peace Communications.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem characterized the Deir al-Balah vote as “an important step” and advocated for broader elections at all levels to “rebuild Palestinian legitimacy” after more than two decades without national polls. He said the process should reflect “the will of the people” and emphasized coordination to ensure a “fair and transparent vote.”
Qassem’s democratic renewal call came from a movement that seized power in Gaza through force. After winning the January 2006 legislative election, Hamas refused to share governance with Fatah and, in June 2007, defeated Palestinian Authority security forces in six days of street fighting that killed more than 160 Palestinians. Fighters threw opponents from rooftops in Gaza City. In subsequent years, Hamas conducted no additional elections, imprisoned Fatah organizers, assaulted journalists covering internal dissent, and shot demonstrators during the 2019 “We Want To Live” protests against living costs. Alkhatib, of the Atlantic Council, stated this month that Gazans critical of the movement on social media continue to be “arrested, jailed, tortured, shot, and killed daily.” Qassem’s statement did not reference the movement’s December opposition to the underlying election law.
The statement came two days before Hamas negotiators were scheduled to resume Cairo talks on Monday with Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s Gaza envoy, regarding the group’s weapons.
Hamas officials have indicated they will surrender thousands of automatic rifles and other small arms carried by the police and internal security services of the Hamas government. Those weapons would transfer to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and to a new Palestinian police force operating under the Board of Peace. The same officials say they have already prepared to integrate former Hamas government employees into the new security structure.
Hamas has not offered the arsenal of its armed wing, the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades. Negotiators have made no commitment regarding the tunnel network, rockets, drones, and anti-tank missiles the wing still possesses, or the underground workshops producing heavy weapons. Israeli officials estimated this week that the Qassam Brigades have rebuilt their ranks to roughly 27,000 fighters during the ceasefire, while Hamas continues paying monthly salaries to about 49,000 administrators who manage the Strip’s daily governance across 13 municipalities, including ministries handling economy, education, health, and welfare.
The disarmament discussions follow two weeks of renewed tensions and mutual accusations of ceasefire violations. Israeli authorities reported multiple incidents involving Palestinian factions between April 8 and 16, while continuing targeted strikes in Gaza. Palestinian officials and residents say some strikes have hit populated areas, including an April 23 attack on a police vehicle in Khan Yunis that killed eight people, including three civilian bystanders.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 984 Palestinians have died since the October ceasefire began. Israeli authorities say attacks by Palestinian fighters during the same period have killed four Israeli soldiers.
Hamas is also confronting other Palestinian armed groups, including the Popular Forces, which Israel began arming in 2024 and which has remained active despite the December killing of the network’s original founder, Yasser Abu Shabab of the Tarabin tribe. Smaller groups led by former PA security officers Hussam al-Astal and Shawqi Abu Nasira operate in eastern Khan Yunis.
On April 20, Astal’s fighters crossed from Israeli-controlled territory into a Hamas-held area east of Khan Yunis and exchanged fire with Hamas, which struck the retreating armed group’s vehicle with an anti-tank grenade.
“It is unfortunate to see individuals known for supporting Hamas included on one of the lists,” Hala Saeed, a Deir al-Balah resident who chose not to vote, told The Media Line. “This raises doubts about attempts by Hamas to return to power through indirect means and increases the sense of concern and mistrust among residents.”
“I don’t believe these elections will change anything on the ground or improve people’s current conditions,” Saeed said, “especially with the war ongoing and casualties falling every day.”
