Palestinians lined up outside polls in tents and donated buildings on Saturday to vote in the first elections held in part of Gaza in more than two decades, while voting also took place across the West Bank.
More than 70,000 people are eligible to vote for municipal government in Deir al-Balah, a central Gaza city that has been damaged by airstrikes but was spared an Israeli ground invasion. The single-city vote is a largely symbolic "pilot," election officials say, part of an effort to politically link Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinians see both as integral to any future path to statehood.
