{"id":33111,"date":"2026-04-25T14:20:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/voting-in-gaza-for-the-first-time-in-20-years\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T14:20:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:20:50","slug":"voting-in-gaza-for-the-first-time-in-20-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/voting-in-gaza-for-the-first-time-in-20-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Voting in Gaza, for the first time in 20 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Political contests in a country destroyed by Israel<\/p>\n

Palestinians are voting today, April 25, in local elections that include Gaza for the first time in two decades and will gauge the political mood at a time when the Israeli government is seeking to destroy any future of a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n

The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority hopes the symbolic inclusion of the Gaza city of Deir al-Balah will help strengthen its claim to rule over the devastated territory. from the war, from which Hamas drove him out in 2007.<\/p>\n

Gaza residents, who are still struggling to meet their basic needs in the devastated enclave, welcomed the chance to vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been hearing about elections since I was born,\u201d said Adham Al-Bardini, sitting by the family’s vases outside their tented home in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are eager to participate\u2026 in so that we can change the reality that has been imposed on us.”<\/p>\n

European and Arab governments widely support the eventual return of Palestinian Authority rule to Gaza and the creation of an independent Palestinian state that would include Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule under Israeli occupation.<\/p>\n

Western diplomats say local elections could pave the way for the first national elections in nearly two decades and help advance of reforms to increase transparency and accountability that the Palestinian Authority says are well under way.<\/p>\n

These are the first Palestinian elections to be held since the war in Gaza began more than two years ago with a cross-border attack by Hamas on southern Israeli communities.<\/p>\n

Reuters reports that municipal elections were last held in the West Bank four years ago.<\/p>\n

In Deir al-Balah, which has suffered less damage from the 2023 Israeli offensive than other Gaza cities, banners listing candidates hang from buildings. Some voting will be held in tents and the process will end two hours early due to power cuts.<\/p>\n

Several Palestinian factions are boycotting the election in protest at the Palestinian Authority’s demand that candidates support its accords, which include recognizing the state of Israel.<\/p>\n

Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, has not officially nominated a single candidate but a list in the Deir election. al-Balah is widely seen by residents and analysts as affiliated with him.<\/p>\n

Most candidates, including those in the West Bank, are running under the umbrella of Fatah, the main political movement behind the Palestinian Authority, or as independents.<\/p>\n

Hamas has said it will respect the results, and Palestinian sources told Reuters before the vote that the group’s civilian police would be deployed to secure polling stations in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Central Committee of Palestinian Elections said more than a million Palestinians, including 70,000 in Gaza, were eligible to vote, with results expected late Saturday or Sunday. \/tesheshi<\/p>\n

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Source: prizrenpost<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Political contests in a country destroyed by Israel Palestinians are voting today, April 25, in local elections that include Gaza for the first time in two decades and will gauge the political mood at a time when the Israeli government is seeking to destroy any future of a Palestinian state. The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[666],"class_list":["post-33111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-brief"],"views":5,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33113,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33111\/revisions\/33113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}