70,000 Gazans offered chance to vote in PA municipal elections for first time in years

The Palestinian Central Elections Committee announced that some 70,000 Gazans would be among more than one million people eligible to vote in the Palestinian Authority (PA) municipal elections scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

The PA, based in Ramallah, north of Jerusalem, decided to include tens of thousands of residents of the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah in the municipal elections for the first time in years.

The move comes against the backdrop of Hamas’ longstanding control of Gaza. The terrorist organization won the enclave’s elections in 2006, a year after Israel unilaterally withdrew all military forces and civilian residents from the Gaza Strip. In 2007, Hamas violently ousted its political rival, Fatah, which runs the PA.

The residents in Deir al-Balah are now able to vote in the municipal elections in the war-torn Gaza Strip, along with some two million residents in PA-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria, internationally known as the West Bank. 

"I've been hearing about elections since I was born," Deir al-Balah resident Adham Al-Bardini said while sitting outside his family’s temporary tent home. "We are eager to take part ... so we can change the reality imposed on us," he argued.

The Deir al-Balah elections were scheduled to be held in tents and were cut two hours short due to electricity constraints. Hamas claimed that it would respect the outcome of the local elections. 

The selection of the city was not accidental. Located in central Gaza, it suffered far less war-related damage than towns in the northern and southern parts of the Hamas-controlled enclave.

By including the Gaza town, the PA is likely seeking to reassert its influence in Gaza while simultaneously testing local sentiment after more than two years of devastating war following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Prior to the war, Hamas enjoyed significantly greater popularity in Gaza than its rival Fatah. However, many Gazans are now increasingly blaming Hamas for the widespread destruction, which critics say stems from the group’s practice of operating within civilian areas and infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, mosques, and residential buildings.

Arab and European governments are widely backing the PA’s attempts to claim governance in Gaza, viewing it as the first step of a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem as its declared capital.

However, the current Israeli government and much of the Israeli public are opposed to a Palestinian state due to ideological and security reasons. 

“Gaza will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed in December 2023, two months after the Hamas-led massacre of 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping of 251 people from southern Israeli border communities. 

“After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism,” Netanyahu argued, referring to the Fatah-controlled PA, which has systematically incited hatred and terrorism against Israel and Jews. 

The PA’s controversial pay-for-slay policy has incentivized the murder of Israelis and Jews through financial payments. 

Israel, which collects tax revenues for the PA, has withheld some amounts due to the PA’s pay-for-slay policy. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is a vocal opponent of the two-state solution, vowed that "We will continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state."