Palestinians cast ballots on Saturday in municipal elections covering 420 local authorities across the occupied West Bank and, for the first time in 22 years, in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah — marking the first vote of any kind since the outbreak of the Gaza war. More than 1.5 million voters were registered in the West Bank, with an additional 70,000 eligible in Deir al-Balah. Polling stations opened at 7am local time, with West Bank polls closing at 7pm and those in Deir al-Balah at 5pm, the earlier closing time arranged to allow vote-counting in daylight given the absence of reliable electricity in the war-ravaged strip.

Deir al-Balah, a city in the central Gaza Strip, was selected as the sole Gaza location because it is among the least damaged areas of the territory and has seen relatively little displacement of its population compared to other parts of Gaza. Four electoral lists — Peace and Construction, Deir al-Balah Unites Us, Future of Deir al-Balah, and Renaissance of Deir al-Balah — competed for seats on the municipal council, presenting themselves as independent and service-oriented, with priorities centring on the acute water shortage, sanitation, and post-war recovery. Hamas, which has governed Gaza since seizing control in 2007 following a rupture with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA), did not field or endorse any list but said it would respect the results; a source within the elections commission noted that Hamas police insisted on providing unarmed security personnel in civilian clothing around the 12 polling centres.

Across the West Bank, most competing lists are aligned with or independent of President Mahmoud Abbas's secular-nationalist Fatah movement. Other factions, including the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, have fielded independent candidates in some cities. Notably, in several major cities — including Nablus and Ramallah, the seat of the PA — only a single list was submitted, meaning those councils were decided without a contest. The elections are governed by a new electoral law passed in November 2025, introducing proportional representation with open lists for municipal councils and a 5% threshold for seat allocation, while reserving 25% of seats for women and lowering the minimum candidacy age to 18.

Reactions among Palestinians ranged from cautious participation to deep scepticism. Mahmoud Bader, a businessman from Tulkarem — a northern West Bank city whose adjacent refugee camps have been under Israeli military control for over a year — said he would vote while doubting anything would change.