{"id":2511,"date":"2026-04-25T10:56:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T07:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=2511"},"modified":"2026-04-25T10:56:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T07:56:00","slug":"municipal-elections-in-the-west-bank-and-central-gaza-amid-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=2511","title":{"rendered":"Municipal elections in the West Bank and central Gaza amid war"},"content":{"rendered":"

Polls opened today (25\/4) Saturday (25\/4) at 07:00, both in the West Bank<\/strong> and in the Deir al-Balah area in the central Gaza Strip. <\/p>\n

This is the first <\/b>election process organized since the beginning of the war. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Palestinian Authority is seeking, through Gaza’s participation, albeit limited, to strengthen its position in the devastated territory from which it was ousted by Hamas in 2007. <\/p>\n

Gaza residents living with severe shortages see the vote as a rare opportunity and say they want to influence their daily lives through the ballot box. <\/p>\n

International actors, mainly from Europe<\/strong> and Arab countries<\/strong>, support a scenario of the Palestinian Authority’s return to Gaza. The goal is a single Palestinian state comprising Gaza<\/strong>, East Jerusalem<\/strong> and the West Bank<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Diplomatic sources believe that the local elections may serve as a protest<\/b> for a national ballot,<\/b> which has not been set up for nearly 20 years.<\/b> At the same time, transparency<\/strong> and logos<\/strong> are expected to be strengthened. <\/p>\n

Note that the last municipal elections in the West Bank were held four years ago. The current process is being conducted in particularly difficult conditions, against a backdrop of destruction. <\/p>\n

In Deir al-Balah, where damage is more limited than in other areas of Gaza, tents have even been erected as polling stations. However, that voting will be completed early due to problems with electrical supply<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The electoral commission said it was not possible to set up polling stations in most of Gaza due to widespread destruction and the security situation. <\/p>\n

Also, some Palestinian factions chose to boycott<\/strong> the process. They oppose the Palestinian Authority’s demand that candidates accept its agreements, which include recognition of Israel<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Hamas did not officially run candidates. However, analysts say one of the ballots in Deir al-Balah is believed to have its support. The result will give insight into its influence while most candidates are affiliated with Fattah<\/strong> or are running as independents. <\/p>\n

Hamas has also said it will accept the result. Meanwhile, its security forces have been deployed to protect polling stations in Gaza. <\/p>\n

More than one million voters<\/strong> are eligible to participate, including some 70,000 in Gaza<\/strong>. Results are expected late tonight or tomorrow Sunday (4\/26)<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n Polls opened today (25\/4) at 07:00 on Saturday (25\/4) in both the West Bank and in the Deir al-Balah area in the central strip of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}