A festive and cheerful mood has taken hold of the West Bank as the Palestinian Authority holds local elections, FRANCE 24's Noga Tarnopolsky said, reporting from Bethlehem. 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.

Palestinians in the West Bank and central Gaza voted Saturday in municipal elections, the first since the war in Gaza erupted, with low turnout and a limited political field. 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.

The Palestinian Authority faces widespread criticism over corruption, stagnation and declining legitimacy.

Local elections are held in the occupied West Bank and in one Gazan city, though Hamas and other groups are not taking part.

Local elections are held in the occupied West Bank and in one Gazan city, though Hamas and other groups are not taking part.

Palestinians will vote in local elections, the first in two decades in Gaza and the first in the occupied West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.