Election campaign banners showing candidates for the upcoming municipal elections hang on a building in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on April 21, 2026. AFP
Gaza will hold its first elections in over two decades, with voting in Deir al-Balah scheduled for April 25 despite slow progress on the peace attempt and the normalization after the two-year Israeli strikes.
The vote will come shortly after a reported drone strike killed five Palestinians, including three children, even after a ceasefire was reached last October.
The municipal ballot in the central Gaza city will take place alongside local elections across the occupied West Bank, forming part of a broader vote involving 420 municipal bodies.
For many Palestinians, the elections are seen as a rare gesture of political unity, especially amid U.S.-backed proposals for Gaza that critics say could further entrench its separation from the West Bank.
This marks the first election of any kind in Gaza since 2006 and the first municipal vote in the territory in 22 years. In Deir al-Balah, four independent electoral lists are competing: Peace and Construction, Deir al-Balah Unites Us, Future of Deir al-Balah and Renaissance of Deir al-Balah. Each slate fields 15 candidates, including at least four women, with the mayor to be chosen from among them.
Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections and subsequently took control of Gaza after clashes with Fatah, the faction led by President Mahmoud Abbas, which continues to dominate the West Bank. Since 2005, Hamas has filled local councils and municipalities through appointments rather than elections.
