RAMALLAH: Israel has barred Palestinian election officials from entering Gaza and Jerusalem to prepare for November’s long-awaited legislative elections, creating a fresh obstacle to the first Palestinian parliamentary vote in two decades.

The Palestinian Central Elections Commission was prevented from entering both territories on Tuesday to oversee preparations for the Nov. 28 election, the official WAFA news agency reported, citing a Palestinian official.

The move raised doubts over whether the election can proceed as scheduled, with voting intended to take place across the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.

Earlier on Tuesday, Kaja Kallas, EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said in a post on X that the bloc was “ready to deploy an Election Observation Mission for the Palestinian legislative polls.”

During a phone call with Hussein Al-Sheikh, the Palestinian vice president, Kallas said: “Palestinians have the right to choose their representatives in elections that are credible, inclusive and transparent.”

In return, Al-Sheikh, on a post on X, called for “European support to help overcome any obstacles to holding the elections, ensuring the participation of all our people in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in the electoral process.”

The commission said last week that preparations remained on track despite Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas extending the candidate nomination period from 12 to 18 days because of severe movement restrictions and the difficult security and political situation in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

It said the change would not affect the Nov. 28 polling date.

However, Jibril Rajoub, a senior official in Abbas’ Fatah movement, said last month that he did not expect the legislative election to be held on schedule and called instead for presidential elections to be held first.

Holding the presidential vote first “would solve a large part of the problem,” Rajoub said, arguing that such an election would be easier, less costly and could be organized through consensus.

Abbas, 90, was elected president in 2005 for a four-year term that expired in 2009. No presidential election has been held since.

He announced in June that a presidential vote would be held in early 2027, but no specific date has been set.

The Palestinians have not held a legislative election since January 2006, when Hamas won a surprise victory over Fatah. The Palestinian Legislative Council has effectively been inactive since the subsequent political split between Hamas-controlled Gaza and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

The latest Israeli restrictions revive one of the central obstacles that derailed the Palestinians’ last attempt to hold national elections.

In 2021, Abbas called legislative elections for May and a presidential vote for July, but postponed them indefinitely after Israel failed to provide assurances that Palestinians in East Jerusalem would be allowed to participate.

At the time, Abbas said elections would not proceed until voting in Jerusalem was guaranteed.

The Palestinian election commission says Israel imposed restrictions on voting in East Jerusalem during previous elections, but voting nevertheless took place there in 1996, 2005 and 2006.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed it in a move not recognized internationally. Palestinians seek the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future state.

Gaza poses an additional challenge to this year’s election because of widespread destruction, displacement and restrictions on movement following the war that began in October 2023.

Nearly 3 million Palestinians are eligible to vote, including about 1.24 million in Gaza and 140,000 Jerusalem ID holders, according to the election commission.

Fatah officials had already cited Israel’s refusal to allow ballot boxes, election papers and ink into Gaza among the obstacles that could prevent the November vote from going ahead, Reuters reported last month.

Abbas nevertheless reaffirmed at the UN General Assembly in September that the legislative election would take place on Nov. 28 as part of a broader reform program.

France and other international partners have pressed the PA to proceed with both legislative and presidential elections as part of efforts to renew the legitimacy of Palestinian institutions. France has also pushed for EU observers to monitor the vote.

The PA has faced growing international pressure to carry out political and institutional reforms, particularly as discussions continue over future governance arrangements in Gaza and the reunification of the territory with the West Bank under a single Palestinian administration.