Local elections in the West Bank and part of Gaza could test public trust

With city offices damaged by Israeli airstrikes, Palestinians lined up outside polls in tents and donated buildings to vote in the first elections held in part of Gaza in more than two decades.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — With city offices damaged by Israeli airstrikes, Palestinians lined up outside polls in tents and donated buildings to vote in the first elections held in part of Gaza in more than two decades.

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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 occupied West Bank — both of which Palestinians see as integral to any future path to statehood.

Voters spoke about the near-total absence of public services and said the devastation facing the coastal enclave compelled them to participate.