Residents of Gaza’s Deir el-Balah are heading to the polls on Saturday for the territory’s first municipal elections in more than two decades, hoping to restore local governance while still reeling from Israel’s devastating war.

The central city was selected as a testing ground for a revival of the democratic process because it sustained less infrastructural damage than other areas in the besieged enclave. Nevertheless, the scars of Israel’s genocidal war there are stark.

In December 2024, Israeli forces bombed the Deir el-Balah municipality building, killing then-Mayor Diab al-Jarou and 10 staff members as they worked to provide essential services for displaced Palestinians. The deadly attack was carried out despite the Israeli military having designated the city as a “safe zone”.

Today, the Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC) – the independent body responsible for administering elections across the Palestinian territories – views the vote as a pivotal milestone.

Jamil al-Khalidi, the CEC’s regional director, told Al Jazeera that the April 25 election will be part of a broader process, including 420 local councils in the occupied West Bank, with Deir el-Balah the sole participating municipality in Gaza.

It marks a significant departure from the policy of administrative appointments that has governed the Strip under Hamas leadership for the past 21 years.

About 70,000 eligible voters over the age of 18 can cast their ballots between 7am and 5pm (04:00-14:00 GMT). To ensure a smooth process, the CEC has launched a toll-free hotline for residents to verify their registration status. Voting will take place at 12 electoral centres in spaces such as local stadiums, women’s activity centres and former clinics. Each centre will be equipped with eight polling stations.

Voters will be selecting from lists of candidates.

“The electoral system relies on closed lists,” al-Khalidi explained. Each list must include at least 15 candidates, with a minimum of four women. Voters will first choose one of four lists, then they will cast preference votes for five specific candidates within that list.

The 15 candidates with the most support will form the new local council, while ensuring female representation is maintained.

Formal political parties like Hamas or Fatah are not running under their official banners in this election. Instead, candidates are largely grouped based in tribal or professional alliances.

Clean water, not politics

Four nominally independent lists of candidates are competing for council seats: Peace and Construction, Deir el-Balah Brings Us Together, Future of Deir el-Balah and Renaissance of Deir el-Balah.

In interviews with Al Jazeera, figures including Mohammed Abu Nasser – head of the Peace and Construction list – and Faten Harb – candidate for Renaissance of Deir el-Balah – have been eager to emphasise that their platforms are strictly service-oriented, focused on transparency, and operate “away from partisanship”.

Debate in Gaza persists about candidates’ underlying affiliations in a deeply divided political landscape. Ultimately, however, for many war-weary residents, the return to the ballot box is meaningless unless it translates to real-world improvements for Palestinians.

“The citizen today is not looking for slogans, but for real solutions,” resident Rabha al-Bhaisi told Al Jazeera, pointing to the dire need for basic services such as clean water, electricity and sewage management.

Another resident, Ali Rayan, told Al Jazeera that holding elections “will not be enough if they do not meet the minimum life demands and translate into a tangible change on the ground”.

Aware of this intense public scrutiny, candidates are trying to distance themselves from partisanship.

Abu Nasser, head of the Peace and Construction list, has said the current recovery phase requires practical, innovative solutions with a strong reliance on young people. Faten Harb, a candidate for Renaissance of Deir el-Balah, has stressed that her group is running on a strictly national and service-oriented platform aimed at enhancing transparency.

Salem Abu Hassanein, media director for the Future of Deir el-Balah list, told Al Jazeera that the success of this democratic experiment must take precedence. “The real bet is on producing a council capable of serving the people, away from narrow political calculations,” he said.

A ‘desperate attempt’ at legitimacy

Beyond the immediate need for public services, this election also intersects with intense international deliberation about the “day after” in Gaza and the broader crisis of Palestinian governance.

But analysts caution against viewing this isolated vote as a true measure of political popularity for factions like Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007.

Wesam Afifa, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera that the severe realities of war make it impossible to gauge true political weight.

“Neither Hamas nor any other faction, including Fatah, views this election as an opportunity to prove its legitimacy or measure its popularity. The circumstances are simply too extraordinary,” Afifa said. “Even Hamas has not explicitly announced it will compete, trying instead to monitor from afar or participate symbolically.”

Instead, Afifa said, the heavy reliance on “independent” lists indicates that Palestinian society is falling back on traditional family networks, which are largely driving these lists, rather than a genuine shift towards international demands for “technocratic” governance.

Any newly elected council will also have to navigate how it interacts with the “technocratic committee” of United States President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, led by Nickolay Mladenov, who is expected to manage Gaza, Afifa noted.

In this regard, the vote is of particular significance for the Palestinian Authority (PA), analysts say. By simultaneously holding elections in the occupied West Bank – where Israel is accelerating land confiscation, illegal settlement expansion and the entrenchment of military rule – the Ramallah-based PA is attempting to assert its relevance.

“The PA is fighting for its existence and its symbolism,” Afifa said, noting that the Authority has so far been largely sidelined from international discussions regarding a post-war, internationally backed “technocratic committee” to run Gaza.

If such a model succeeds in Gaza, Afifa warned, it could be proposed for the occupied West Bank as well, further threatening the PA’s legitimacy.

“This election is a desperate attempt by the PA to express itself, its legitimacy, and its existence to the international community.”

Ultimately, observers like Bassam al-Far, a representative of the Arab Liberation Front, note that while factions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank broadly agree on the necessity of holding a vote, the real challenge will be whether any elected body can function effectively amid the harsh living conditions, closed border crossings and an ongoing political divide that has fractured Palestinian life.

For now, Deir el-Balah stands at a crossroads: Saturday’s vote will either serve as the beginning of a gradual return to democracy, or remain an isolated, highly symbolic experiment constrained by a reality far too complex for ballot boxes alone to fix.