Palestinians in parts of the West Bank and central Gaza went to the polls Saturday in their first elections since the Gaza war, with low turnout and a limited political field amid growing public frustration.
Nearly 1.5 million people are registered to vote in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as 70,000 people in Gaza's Deir el-Balah area, according to the Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission.
In the opening hours, a steady trickle of voters made their way to polling stations in Al-Bireh in the West Bank and Deir el-Balah.
By late morning, turnout was strikingly low at 15 percent, rising to 24.53 percent by 1 pm (1000 GMT), the election commission said.
An AFP journalist reported near?empty stations across parts of the West Bank, as foreign diplomats observed the process.
"We are very pleased to exercise democracy in spite of the many challenges we face, both locally and internationally," Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas told journalists after voting in Al-Bireh, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said.
Voter Khalid Eid said he hoped for change in council composition.
"We can't change the situation but we hope to replace people... people who might be better and help develop the community," the 55-year-old told AFP.
Some questioned the election's timing.
"We did not want elections at this time, not with war in Gaza and settler attacks ongoing in the West Bank," said Ziad Hassan, a businessman from Dura Al-Qaraa village.
"The decision was imposed on us, and so we are compelled to elect an administrative body for the village council."
Israeli settler attacks have surged in recent months, and become a major concern.
"The main thing is security from settlers. That's why we need new faces, young people willing to fight for our rights," said Abed Jabaieh, 68, former mayor of Ramun village.
Most electoral lists are aligned with Abbas's secular-nationalist Fatah movement or are composed of independents.
EU hails elections
Hamas, Fatah's bitter rival and the ruling power in Gaza, is absent from the race.
In many municipalities, Fatah-backed lists face off against independents supported by smaller factions such as the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Municipal councils are responsible for basic services such as water, sanitation and local infrastructure and do not enact legislation.
The Palestinian Authority faces widespread criticism over corruption, stagnation and declining legitimacy.
Western and regional donors have increasingly tied financial and diplomatic support for the PA to visible reforms, particularly at the local governance level, as national elections remain frozen.
With no presidential or legislative elections held since 2006, municipal councils have become one of the few functioning democratic institutions under PA administration.
The European Union said the elections were an "important step towards broader democratization and strengthened local governance, in general terms and in line with the ongoing reforms process".
U.N. coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov also commended the election commission for organizing a "credible process".
Mahmud Bader, a businessman from the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, where two adjacent refugee camps have been under Israeli military control for over a year, said he would vote despite having little hope for meaningful change.
"Whether candidates are independent or partisan, it has no effect and will have no effect or benefit for the city," he told AFP on Friday.
"The (Israeli) occupation is the one that rules Tulkarem. It would only be an image shown to the international media, as if we have elections, a state or independence."
'Strong determination'
Polling stations in the West Bank will close at 7 pm, while polls in Deir el-Balah will close at 5 pm to facilitate counting in daylight due to the lack of electricity in the war-devastated strip, the elections commission told AFP.
Two years of Israeli war that started in October 2023 have left swathes of Gaza destroyed and more than 72,000 people dead, according to the territory's health ministry.
Public infrastructure, sanitation services and the health sector are struggling to function.
Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since 2007, is seeing its first vote since legislative elections of 2006 that the Islamist movement won.
The Palestinian Authority is holding elections only in Deir el-Balah "as an experiment (to test its own) success or failure, since there are no post-war opinion polls", Jamal al-Fadi, a political scientist at Cairo's Al-Azhar University, told AFP.
Deir el-Balah was chosen as it was one of the only places in Gaza where "the population has remained largely in place and not been displaced" by more than two years of war between Hamas and Israel, Fadi said.
Mohammed al-Hasayna, 24, said after voting in Deir el-Balah that although the elections were largely symbolic, they served as a sign of people's "will to live".
"We are an educated people with strong determination, and we deserve to have our own state," he told AFP.
"We want the world to help us overcome the catastrophe of war. Enough wars -- it is time to work towards rebuilding Gaza."