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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.

Palestinians in the West Bank and a central area of Gaza head to the polls Saturday for municipal elections in a first vote since the Gaza war, marked by a narrow political field and widespread disillusionment.

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.

Most electoral lists are aligned with president Mahmud Abbas's secular-nationalist Fatah party or running as independents.

There are no lists affiliated with Fatah's archrival Hamas, which controls nearly half of the Gaza Strip.

In most cities, Fatah-backed tickets will run against independent lists headed by candidates from factions such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Marxist-Leninist).

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.

"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."

In many cities, including Nablus and Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, only one list has been submitted, meaning it wins automatically without needing a vote.

Polling stations in the West Bank will be open from 7:00 am (0400 GMT) to 7:00 pm, while in Deir al-Balah, polls will close at 5:00 pm to facilitate counting in daylight due to the lack of electricity in the war devastated strip, the elections commission told AFP.

UN coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov commended the commission for organising a "credible process".

"Saturday's elections represent an important opportunity for Palestinians to exercise their democratic rights during an exceptionally challenging period", Alakbarov said in a statement.

The deadliest incident came in Khan Younis on Friday, where a strike on a police vehicle killed at least eight people, including three civilians who were passing by. In Gaza City, another attack killed two police officers, Al Jazeera reported.

In northern Gaza, two more people were killed when a house in Beit Lahiya was hit. Gaza’s Ministry of Interior urged the international community to step in, accusing Israel of targeting police forces working to maintain order in civilian areas.

According to the ministry, the Khan Younis strike happened after security personnel moved in to break up a fight.

“The continued silence of international organisations … regarding the targeting of civilian police officers constitutes complicity with the Israeli occupation, encouraging it to commit further crimes against a civilian institution protected under international law,” the ministry said.

“We emphasise that the police force provides services to citizens in the Gaza Strip across various aspects of daily life. There is absolutely no justification for targeting it or killing its personnel.”

Israeli fire killed at least ten people including two police officers across Gaza on Friday, Palestinian health officials said.

An Israeli strike in Gaza City killed three people, including two police, tank shelling killed two in Beit Lahiya, and a strike on Khan Younis in the south killed five, according to local medics.

The Israeli military confirmed they had conducted a strike on Gaza City and said they were targeting Hamas fighters.

The strikes in Gaza City and Khan Younis targeted the local police force, Gaza's interior ministry said. The strike in Khan Younis targeted a police vehicle, the ministry added, and hit near a wedding hall, medics and residents said.

The strike hit a crowded area in Gaza City near an area where local police were stationed to guard a bank, said the medics and eyewitnesses.

Gaza's interior ministry said the strike killed two policemen and wounded two others, in a statement on Friday.

The Israeli military confirmed they had conducted a strike in the area, but said they were targeting Hamas fighters.

Despite a de facto ceasefire, living conditions in Gaza Strip remain dire, with humanitarian aid still falling well short of needs.

Although more commercial goods are entering the enclave, high prices are putting them beyond the reach of many residents, deepening the crisis.

Hospitals continue to operate under severe strain, with critical shortages of medicines and equipment reported by local health officials. The World Health Organization also faces restrictions on bringing in supplies, leaving medical facilities lacking essentials such as MRI scanners, ventilators and adequately functioning intensive care units.

Conflict, drought and shrinking aid will keep global hunger at critical levels in 2026, with food insecurity expected to worsen in some of the world's most fragile countries, according to the 2026 Global Report on Food Crises.

The 10th edition of the hunger monitor, published by a coalition of development and humanitarian organisations, said that acute hunger had doubled over the past decade with two famines declared last year for the first time in the report's history - in Gaza and Sudan.

In total, 266 million people in 47 countries and territories faced high levels of acute food insecurity in 2025, while 1.4 million people faced catastrophic conditions in parts of Haiti, Mali, Gaza, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen.