Palestinians in the Gaza Strip voted in their first-ever municipal elections today in a test of support for President Mahmoud Abbas and rival Islamist groups ahead of Israel's withdrawal from the occupied territory.
Thousands of Palestinians turned out to vote at 10 municipal councils throughout the coastal strip, which Israel captured along with the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war.
Palestinians are seeking statehood for the area under a US-backed peace "road map".
Mr Abbas has been trying to coax a ceasefire from militants spearheading a four-year-old revolt and prevent a chaotic power vacuum in Gaza when Israeli troops and settlers are to withdraw this year under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "disengagement plan".
But militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, sworn to the Jewish state's destruction, have won many hearts during the conflict and pose a challenge to the two-state diplomacy pursued by Fatah, the dominant Palestinian Authority faction.
West Bank municipal elections last month showed Hamas making significant progress in terms of grassroots support. Islamist groups are generally even more popular in cramped, coastal Gaza, where 1.4 million Palestinians live in often dire poverty.