The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmud Abbas, has signed a decree this Thursday setting November 28 as the date for the legislative elections in Palestine. If confirmed, these elections would be the first of their kind in almost twenty years, after a long series of delays and cancellations.
The text signed by Abbas calls the population of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem to the polls to elect the members who will form the next Palestinian Legislative Council, as reported by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
The Palestinian leader, who in May committed to promoting reforms and holding parliamentary elections in November of this year, already approved another decree in mid-June to call for presidential elections in 2027, although the exact date for that electoral event has not yet been specified.
Palestine held elections on April 25 to renew the local councils. In the case of the Gaza Strip, the vote took place in Deir al-Balah, in the central area, becoming the first consultation in more than twenty years in the enclave, where a fragile ceasefire has been in effect since October 2025, after more than two years of Israeli military offensive.
The last parliamentary elections date back to 2006 and concluded with the victory of the Change and Reform list, formed by Hamas candidates, in both Gaza and the West Bank—including East Jerusalem—a result that was rejected by Israel and the United States, with the backing of the Palestinian Authority itself. This position led to an administrative and territorial rupture after an internal conflict between Palestinian factions.
Since then, no elections had been called in Gaza, while in the West Bank local elections have been organized—in 2012, 2017, and 2022. However, presidential and legislative elections have been repeatedly postponed, fueling criticism about the legitimacy of Abbas's mandate, whom his rivals accuse of lacking the backing to represent the Palestinians.
In this scenario, Hamas announced on Monday the dissolution of the governing body in Gaza as part of preparations to cede powers to the technocratic committee agreed upon within the framework of the proposal presented by United States President Donald Trump for the future of the Palestinian enclave following Israel's devastating offensive after the attacks of October 7, 2023.