Overview
- Deir al-Balah voters cast municipal ballots Saturday, marking Gaza’s first local vote in roughly two decades.
- The Palestinian Authority ran the Gaza poll as part of a wider West Bank municipal round, with about 70,000 eligible voters choosing 15 council seats, including four reserved for women.
- Hamas did not field candidates, and spokesman Hazem Qassem said the group would transfer municipal powers to the winning list after results are released.
- Officials chose Deir al-Balah because it was less damaged and still populated, and they set up 12 temporary polling sites with unarmed private guards and nearly 300 observers.
- Analysts and local media cast the contest as a small gauge of Hamas’s remaining support and of the PA’s capacity to govern, as campaigns stressed clean water, sewage and trash service.