GAZA CITY, 26 January 2006 — Amid tight security and a sea of yellow and green flags, thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem flocked to polling booths early in the morning to vote for 132 new members of the Palestinian Parliament.

Both the ruling Fatah party and its challenger, the Islamist Hamas movement, said they were confident of victory, but said they were willing to govern together if no clear winner emerges. Pollsters said the race was too close to call. A first exit poll was expected at about 9 p.m. and unofficial results by early today.

By 4 p.m. yesterday, with three hours of voting left, 57.6 percent of 1.3 million eligible voters had cast ballots. The atmosphere was festive — some party activists decorated their cars with red carnations, as if for a wedding — and few disruptions were reported, despite concern about possible violence. In the West Bank refugee camp of Balata, gunmen who had threatened to derail voting checked their automatic rifles at the door before voting.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he is ready to resume peace talks with Israel, even if Hamas joins his government after yesterday’s vote.

“We are ready to negotiate,” Abbas told reporters. “We are partners with the Israelis. They don’t have the right to choose their partner. But if they are seeking a Palestinian partner, this partner exists.”

Across the West Bank and Gaza, long lines formed outside polling stations, as Palestinians — given a real choice for the first time — cast their ballots.

Even if it doesn’t win outright, Hamas is widely expected to make a strong showing that would place the Islamists — responsible for dozens of bombings against Israel — squarely inside the Palestinian political system for the first time. Hamas’ success has alarmed Israel and the West, though Abbas has argued that bringing them into the fold will tame them, enabling peace moves to go forward. In an apparent sign of pragmatism, Hamas has not carried out an attack since a cease-fire was declared a year ago.

But yesterday, its top parliamentary candidate, Ismail Haniyeh, said Hamas had no intention of laying down its arms after the elections as Abbas has said he expects. And another prominent candidate, Mahmoud Zahar, said his group is “not going to change a single word” in its covenant calling for Israel’s destruction.

Abbas, elected a year ago, will still head the Palestinian Authority regardless of yesterday’s results, but the voting will usher in a new Cabinet that could include Hamas members. Israel says it will not deal with Hamas until it disarms. The Bush administration lists Hamas as a terrorist organization and also refuses to deal directly with it. But US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack on Tuesday refused to rule out negotiations with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas ministers.

Fatah, tainted by corruption after 12 years in power, was asking voters for another chance to pursue an elusive peace deal with Israel. Hamas has focused on clean government, and criticized Fatah’s attempt at compromise with Israel as a sign of weakness.

Activists from both parties were out in full force early yesterday, handing out lists of candidates’ names, baseball hats and scarves. But the Hamas effort appeared more organized than Fatah’s. “These elections will determine the fate of the Palestinian people,” said Mohammed Shaabein, a 71-year-old retiree in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.

The Beach refugee camp near Gaza City was decorated in a sea of flags — green for Hamas, yellow for Fatah — and the excitement in the air was palpable.

Outside a polling station at a boys’ school in the camp, Fatah supporters wore the party’s black-and-white checkered scarves decorated with Palestinian flags. Hamas activists sported green baseball hats, and many of the Hamas women wore full veils and gloves.

— With input from agencies