Live updates on Israel's war against Hamas

A Palestinian-Jordanian mountaineer is undertaking a symbolic mission to raise global awareness of the situation in Gaza by carrying children's messages to the world’s highest peak.

Mostafa Salameh is on an expedition to Mount Everest, where he plans to deliver handwritten letters from children in Gaza to the summit.

Israeli strikes killed five Palestinians, including a 9-year-old boy, in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, health officials said.

Medics said an Israeli drone killed the child, Adel Al‑Najjar, in eastern Khan Younis in the south of the enclave, while an Israeli airstrike targeted a vehicle in Gaza City, killing four people.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on either incident.

Israeli strikes killed three Palestinians, including a 9-year-old boy, in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, health officials said.

Medics said an Israeli drone killed the child, Adel Al‑Najjar, in eastern Khan Younis in the south of the enclave, while an Israeli airstrike targeted a vehicle in Gaza City, killing two people and wounding several others.

Loyalists of President Mahmoud Abbas won most races in Palestinian municipal elections, election officials said on Sunday, in a vote that for the first time in nearly two decades included a city in the Gaza Strip run by rival Hamas.

Some candidates on one of the Deir al-Balah lists were widely seen by residents and analysts as aligned with the movement, making the vote a potential indicator of support for Hamas.

Preliminary results showed that the list, known as Deir al‑Balah Brings Us Together, won only two of the 15 seats contested in Gaza.

In Gaza voter turnout reached just 23%, while in the West Bank it was 56%, according to Chairman of the Central Elections Commission Rami al‑Hamdallah.

Hamas' Gaza spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, downplayed the significance of the election results, saying that they had no impact on wider national issues.

Israeli military attacks killed at least four Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, health officials in the enclave said.

Medics said an airstrike carried out by Israel's forces killed one person near the central village of Al-Mughraqa, while Israeli gunfire and tank shelling killed two others near Gaza City.

In another incident, Israeli forces shot and killed a 40-year-old woman in Khan Younis, in the south of the territory, health officials said.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported strikes. Separately, it said it had struck and killed several Hamas fighters in Gaza since Friday.

Polls for Palestinian municipal elections closed across the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the elections commission said, the first since the Gaza war began.

Polling stations shut at 1600 GMT, while in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah— the only area in the territory where voting took place — polls closed an hour earlier, at 1500 GMT.

Some Palestinian factions are boycotting the elections in protest at the PA's request that candidates back its agreements, which include recognition of the state of Israel.

Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, has not formally nominated any candidates but one list in the Deir al-Balah election is widely viewed by residents and analysts as aligned with it.

Analysts say the performance of candidates linked to the militant group could gauge its popularity. Most candidates, including in the West Bank, are running under Fatah, the main political movement behind the PA, or as independents.

Hamas has said it would respect the results. Palestinian sources told Reuters ahead of the vote that the group's civil policemen would be deployed to safeguard polling stations in Gaza.

The Palestinian Central Elections Committee said more than one million Palestinians, including 70,000 in Gaza, are eligible to vote, with results expected late on Saturday or on Sunday.

Palestinians voted in local elections on Saturday that for the first time in two decades include Gaza and will gauge the political mood as Israel's government seeks to destroy any future for a Palestinian state.

The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, or PA, hopes the symbolic inclusion of the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah will reinforce its claim to authority over the territory from which it was ousted by Hamas in 2007.

Gazans, who are struggling to meet their basic needs in the devastated enclave, welcomed the opportunity to vote.

"As a Palestinian and a son of the Gaza Strip, I feel proud that after this war the democratic process is returning," said voter Mamdouh al-Bhaisi, 52, at the Deir al-Balah polling station.