"Hope Right People Come In, Do Right Thing": Israel Votes For Civic Polls

Israelis voted Tuesday in twice postponed municipal elections that could offer a gauge of the public mood nearly five months into the war against Hamas in Gaza.

Soldiers had already cast their ballots over the past week at special polling stations set up in army encampments in Gaza as fighting rages.

Polls opened at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) and closed at 10:00 pm (2000 GMT).

More than seven million people were eligible to vote in the elections for local councils across most of Israel, in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, in Jerusalem and in parts of the annexed Golan Heights.

The vote, first scheduled for October 31, has been pushed back to November 2024 in towns and villages bordering the besieged Gaza Strip or Lebanon, where Hamas ally Hezbollah has fired rockets at Israel almost daily since the start of the Gaza war.

Nearly 150,000 Israelis have been displaced by hostilities in those areas.

Amit Peretz, 32, a Jerusalem city council candidate, said Jerusalem's diverse make-up demands that "all voices are heard in the city in order to make everything work, because it's very complex".

Gita Koppel, an 87-year-old resident of Jerusalem, said she turned out because voting was "the only way you can have your voice heard".

"I hope the right people come in and do the right thing for Jerusalem," she said.

Elections Were Delayed After Hamas Attack

The elections were delayed after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 29,878 people in Gaza, most of them women and minors, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Two candidates for council chief in Gaza border areas were killed in the October 7 attack: Ofir Libstein in Kfar Aza and Tamar Kedem Siman Tov, who was shot dead at her home in Nir Oz with her husband and three young children.

In Jerusalem and other major cities, far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish candidates aligned with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political allies are running against government critics and more moderate candidates.

Netanyahu Facing Public Pressure

Netanyahu has faced increasing public pressure over the fate of hostages still held in Gaza, and from a resurgent anti-government protest movement.

Tel Aviv's mayor of 25 years, Ron Huldai, is seeking re-election in a race against former economy minister Orna Barbivai, who could become the first woman in the job.

Lawyer Amir Badran, an Arab candidate who had initially announced he would run for Tel Aviv mayor, has quit the race before election day but was still vying for a city council seat.

In Jerusalem, another Arab candidate, Sondos Alhoot, was running at the head of a joint Jewish-Arab party. If elected, she would be the first Arab woman on the city council since 1967.

The elections for municipal and regional councils are largely seen as local affairs, though some races can become springboards for politicians with national ambitions.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid, who had a brief stint as prime minister before Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022, said Tuesday's vote shows "there is no problem" holding elections even during the war.

In a post on social media platform X, Lapid called for a snap parliamentary election "as soon as possible" to replace Netanyahu.

Voter turnout in the last local elections, in 2018, stood at 59.5 percent, lower than any of Israel's five parliamentary elections since 2019.

Most Palestinians in east Jerusalem, seized by Israel in 1967 and later annexed, have the right to vote in municipal elections but not for parliament.

Palestinian residents make up around 40 percent of the city's population, but many of them have boycotted past elections.

The first results are expected later Tuesday. Second round run-offs will be held where necessary on March 10.

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