The Palestinian Authority (PA) has not held a presidential election since 2005, when the Fatah faction’s Mahmoud Abbas won with 62 percent of the vote. Following its victory in 2006 legislative elections and a violent rift with Fatah and the West Bank–based PA in 2007, Hamas seized internal control of the Gaza Strip. Abbas’s four-year electoral mandate expired in 2009, though he has continued to govern in the West Bank.

Comprehensive PA elections were planned for 2021, but Abbas canceled them that April, citing Israel’s refusal to allow PA election activity in East Jerusalem. Many analysts argued that the balloting was actually halted because political fragmentation within Fatah raised the risk that Hamas or Fatah splinter groups would win. In 2022, the Algerian government sponsored reconciliation talks with Hamas, Fatah, and other Palestinian factions, resulting in a tentative October agreement that envisioned holding elections within a year. However, there was little evidence of progress toward that goal in 2023.

Under PA laws, the prime minister is nominated by the president and requires the support of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was nominated and sworn in as prime minister following the 2006 elections, and again in 2007 as part of a short-lived unity government, but he was dismissed by President Abbas after the Fatah-Hamas conflict that year. Hamas did not recognize the dismissal. Because repeated attempts to form new PA unity governments have failed, Hamas continued to exercise de facto executive authority in the Gaza Strip. The leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was confirmed for a second term as de facto head of government in a closed election by Hamas officials in 2021; he had first been chosen in 2017. Haniyeh, who has been living abroad in recent years, was similarly confirmed as the overall leader of Hamas for a second four-year term in 2021. Both men remained in their posts as of 2023.

The PA has not held elections for the 132-seat PLC since 2006, when Hamas won 74 seats and Fatah took 45. The subsequent Fatah-Hamas schism and Israel’s detention of many lawmakers left the full PLC unable to function, and the body’s electoral mandate expired in 2010. Nonetheless, a Hamas-led rump legislature continued to operate in the Gaza Strip. In 2018, President Abbas ordered the formal dissolution of the PLC, backed by a Supreme Constitutional Court ruling that also called for legislative elections within six months. Hamas rejected the decision. During the Israeli military campaign that began in October 2023, the parliament building was bombed, a number of members were killed, and related infrastructure was damaged.

In March 2022, the PA held the second phase of its municipal council elections in the West Bank, but Hamas continued to boycott the balloting and renewed its call for comprehensive presidential, legislative, and municipal elections.

No open elections for any office have been held in Gaza since 2006. Decisions about the conduct and administration of elections are highly politicized and dependent on agreements between partisan factions. Hamas has refused to participate in successive PA municipal elections due to disputes about their management and circumstances.

Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has functioned as a de facto one-party state under Hamas rule, although smaller parties—including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and a faction of Fatah that opposes President Abbas—are tolerated to varying degrees. Some of these groups have their own armed wings and media outlets, and hold rallies and gatherings. However, those affiliated with Abbas and his supporters in Fatah are subject to persecution. The conflict that erupted in October 2023 threatened to further sideline civilian political activity.

The repeated postponement of elections has prevented any opportunities for a change in the political status quo by democratic means. The ongoing rift between Fatah and Hamas has also prevented municipal elections in the Gaza Strip that might give non-Hamas factions an opportunity to govern at the local level.

Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which comprises strict limits on the movement of goods and people in and out of the territory, and the Hamas-Fatah rift have long hampered the development of normal civilian political competition. Armed groups, including the Israeli military and the militias affiliated with Hamas and PIJ, have exercised disproportionate control over the day-to-day lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and left them with virtually no ability to shape policies that affect them. Political and militant groups in Gaza are also influenced by more distant foreign powers; Qatar provides crucial financial aid to the territory and Hamas in particular, and the Iranian regime supports both Hamas and PIJ. In 2022, Hamas restored its relations with the Syrian regime, having broken with Damascus over its suppression of Arab Spring protests in 2011.

Beginning in October 2023, Israel’s bombardment and heavy military presence in the territory amid ongoing combat with Hamas left Gaza’s political future entirely in the hands of armed forces and foreign actors.

Hamas makes little effort to address the rights of marginalized groups within Palestinian society. Women enjoy formal political equality under PA laws, and some women won seats in the PLC in 2006. However, women are mostly excluded from leadership positions in Hamas and absent from public political events in practice. Palestinian women in Gaza do participate in civil society activities that address political issues. The political interests of LGBT+ people, who face widespread discrimination and the threat of violence in Gaza, are not addressed by those in power.

The expiration of the presidential and parliamentary terms has left Gaza’s authorities with no electoral mandate. In 2023, Hamas continued to govern the territory’s internal affairs unilaterally and in an authoritarian manner, until the conflict that began in October disrupted governance in general and led to a large-scale Israeli military occupation. Any Israeli or international plans for future governmental arrangements remained unclear at year’s end.

Hamas has been accused of corruption in public service delivery and aid distribution, which is crucial to daily life in Gaza given that even before the conflict in 2023, some 80 percent of the population depended on international assistance due to the blockade. Multiple reports by the Coalition for Accountability and Integrity (AMAN), a civil society organization, have noted that the continuing Fatah-Hamas schism, issues related to judicial integrity, and specific problems with the procurement process have impeded the prosecution of corruption cases.

The Hamas-controlled government had no effective or independent mechanisms for ensuring transparency in its funding, procurements, or operations. AMAN’s reports have noted that political decision-making occurred out of public view. The destruction or disabling of communications systems beginning in October 2023 further reduced access to information, and the Israeli military repeatedly distributed messages to the public by dropping leaflets from the air.

The media are not free in Gaza. West Bank–based newspapers were permitted in the territory, and a number of political factions have their own media outlets. However, journalists and bloggers have faced repression from the Hamas government’s internal security apparatus and from Israeli forces. In a 2018 report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) detailed a pattern of arrests, interrogations, and in some cases beatings and torture of journalists in Gaza. This pattern continued in subsequent years.

Between the outbreak of fighting in October 2023 and the end of the year, the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate documented the killing of more than 100 journalists in Gaza by Israeli forces. The New York–based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) counted at least 74 deaths, with some cases in which reporters were allegedly targeted deliberately by Israeli forces; the killings in Gaza accounted for some three-quarters of the journalist deaths recorded by the organization worldwide for all of 2023. Dozens of media offices were also destroyed.

Freedom of religion is restricted. The PA Basic Law declares Islam to be the official religion of Palestine and states that “respect and sanctity of all other heavenly religions (Judaism and Christianity) shall be maintained.” Blasphemy is a criminal offense. Hamas authorities have enforced conservative Sunni Islamic practices and attempted to exert political control over mosques. However, they have not enforced prayers in schools or compelled women to wear hijab in Gaza’s main urban areas to the extent that they did in the early years of Hamas control. During the conflict that began in October 2023, at least three churches and 120 mosques had been damaged by year’s end, including historically significant sites.

Primary and secondary schools in the Gaza Strip have been run by Hamas, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), or private entities. In the Hamas-run Islamic University, people were separated by gender, and women were obliged to cover their hair. Hamas intervened in the schools under its control to uphold its views on Islamic identity and morality. It did not intervene extensively in private universities, but Hamas-led police have violently suppressed student demonstrations. Some Gazan academics are believed to have practiced self-censorship for their own safety.

According to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, between October 2023 and the end of the year, Israeli forces killed scores of academics and intellectuals in the Gaza Strip through air strikes on their homes. Palestinian education officials reported that more than 4,000 students and 200 teachers and administrators were also killed. Meanwhile, virtually all university facilities and over 300 public and UNRWA schools were partially or completely destroyed. UN officials reported that 69 percent of all school buildings had sustained significant damage by year’s end. Many of the buildings that survived were used as shelters by displaced civilians, or as bases and detention centers by combatants.

Score Change: The score declined from 1 to 0 due to the mass destruction of schools, the use of school facilities by combatants or displaced civilians, and the overall cessation of academic activity in the context of the war.

Intimidation by Hamas militants and other armed groups has some effect on personal expression and private discussion in Gaza, and the authorities monitor social media for critical content. A 2018 HRW report documented a number of incidents in which Hamas intimidated, detained, or abused individuals in response to their social media activity or attendance at political events, most notably those perceived to be supportive of Fatah or opposed to the Hamas government. Such reprisals continue to occur regularly. Social media users, particularly women, also reportedly face online harassment for expressing political views. Opinion polls in 2023 found that a majority of Palestinian respondents said they could not criticize Hamas without fear. With the outbreak of war in October, surveillance by the Israeli military and other actors intensified and expanded.

Before the conflict that began in October 2023, Israeli forces used violent and frequently lethal methods to break up demonstrations near the de facto border. Hamas also significantly restricted freedom of assembly, with security forces violently dispersing unapproved public gatherings. Youth movements and youth-led protests have been systematically repressed by Hamas and its security personnel. After the outbreak of large-scale combat in 2023, any assembly by civilians in public spaces became extremely dangerous.

A broad range of Palestinian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and civic groups were active in Gaza before the conflict that began in October 2023, and Hamas operated a large social-services network. However, Hamas restricted the work of organizations that did not submit to its regulations, and many civic associations have been shut down for political reasons since the 2007 PA split. Aid and reconstruction efforts by NGOs after periodic conflicts with Israel have been held up in part by disagreements over international and PA access to the territory and control over border crossings. The Israeli government also imposes restrictions on access to Gaza for human rights researchers and NGO staff.

In 2021, the Israeli government designated six Palestinian NGOs and human rights organizations as “terrorist” groups, though it did not provide evidence that the groups, some of which received funding from European governments, had links to militant activity. While the six organizations operated mostly in the West Bank, some were also active in Gaza, and the designation was criticized by international human rights organizations and UN experts as an attack on the broader Palestinian human rights movement.

During the conflict in late 2023, the offices of many Palestinian NGOs were destroyed, and staff members were killed or displaced. The active combat, heavy Israeli air strikes, and tight restrictions on border crossings made it extremely difficult for international humanitarian organizations to deliver vital assistance to the population. More than 140 UN staff members were among those killed. Multiple foreign donor governments and international aid agencies also suspended or withdrew funding from Palestinian NGOs in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, citing the need for reviews to ensure that they were not inadvertently supporting terrorist activities.

Score Change: The score declined from 1 to 0 because the work of NGOs in the territory was severely disrupted by lethal violence, mass displacement, and the suspension of funding by international donors.

The Fatah-aligned Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, the largest union body in the territories, has seen its operations curtailed in Gaza since 2007. Workers have had little leverage in labor disputes due to the dire economic situation, extremely high unemployment, and the dysfunctional court system, which impedes enforcement of labor protections.

Hamas sometimes intervened in labor union elections or in the activities of professional associations that are linked to Fatah, and established its own, parallel professional associations to compete with existing organizations. The civil servants’ union for the Hamas-controlled public sector occasionally holds rallies and strikes, but labor activity in general was heavily disrupted along with the rest of civilian life during the conflict that began in October 2023.

Hamas has maintained an ad hoc judicial system that is separate from the PA structures headquartered in the West Bank, which do not operate in Gaza. The system is subject to political control, and its judges lack proper training and experience. In late 2023, the Israeli military destroyed the Gaza Strip’s main courthouse, and most other public buildings had also reportedly been destroyed by year’s end. Court personnel were affected by the forced displacement experienced by the civilian population as a whole.

Hamas security forces and militants regularly carry out arbitrary arrests and detentions. The court system overseen by Hamas generally fails to ensure due process, and in some cases civilians have been subject to trial by special military courts.

Before the conflict that began in October 2023, about 200 Palestinian security detainees and prisoners from Gaza were held in Israeli prisons. The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has noted that transporting prisoners outside of occupied territory is a breach of international law. Israeli military courts, which handle the cases of such detainees, lack the full due process guarantees of civilian courts. By the end of 2023, mass detentions by Israeli forces within Gaza had been revealed through dozens of videos, often recorded by the soldiers involved. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) received reports of detentions and enforced disappearances affecting thousands of Gaza Palestinians.

The 2023 conflict featured heavy Israeli bombardment of populated areas and the mass demolition of civilian structures, while Hamas fighters used an extensive tunnel network beneath the territory’s cities to maneuver and attack Israeli troops. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), citing data from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, reported that some 22,000 Palestinians had been killed by year’s end, with women and children accounting for nearly 70 percent of the total. Another 57,000 people were reportedly injured. More than 150 Israeli soldiers were also killed in the fighting in Gaza, in addition to those killed during the initial Hamas assault within Israel. While dozens of the Israeli and foreign hostages abducted in that attack were later released through internationally brokered agreements, some 130 were believed to remain in the custody of Hamas or other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza as of late December.

According to observers such as HRW, both Hamas and Israeli forces committed war crimes during the violence that began in October. Abuses within Gaza included Israeli actions that cut off essential services and supplies for the civilian population and amounted to collective punishment. At year’s end the ICJ and the ICC were reviewing allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide associated with the conflict.

In an earlier bout of violence in May, PIJ militants in Gaza fired rockets into Israel, and Israeli forces responded with air strikes. The exchanges killed more than 30 people in Gaza and at least two in Israel before a cease-fire was brokered later that month.

The legal system operating in Gaza before October 2023 offered few protections against harassment and discrimination for women and other vulnerable groups, including LGBT+ people. Laws dating to the British Mandate era authorize up to 10 years’ imprisonment for sexual acts between men.

Gaza residents living with disabilities face significant barriers. A 2020 HRW report noted pervasive stigma against this population and found that Israeli import restrictions impeded their access to medical and other equipment. HRW also observed that Israeli-imposed border closures in 2022 disrupted fuel supplies and exacerbated power outages, which disproportionately affect people with disabilities.

The war that began in October 2023 further disrupted enforcement of local and international legal protections for various segments of the population, and its full impact remained unclear as fighting continued at year’s end.

Freedom of movement for Gaza residents has long been severely limited. Israeli and Egyptian authorities exercise tight control over border areas, and Hamas imposed its own restrictions on travel. Israeli officials often deny Gaza residents permits to travel outside of the territory on security grounds, authorizing only certain medical patients and other individuals to leave. University students have had difficulty acquiring the necessary permits to leave the territory to study abroad. Corruption and the use of bribes at crossing points was common before the 2023 war.

During the last three months of 2023, Israeli forces prohibited access to the sea and to areas near Israel’s perimeter fence, and border crossings were only open in practice for a limited amount of searched and approved goods, as well as a very limited number of people such as aid workers, foreign nationals, and critically ill or injured civilians. Meanwhile, about 1.9 million people—85 percent of Gaza’s population—were internally displaced as they fled areas of heavy fighting or were ordered by Israeli forces to evacuate. The evacuation orders confined them to less than one-third of the Gaza Strip’s territory, according to the OHCHR, and few had adequate access to shelter or life-sustaining supplies. More than two-thirds of Gaza’s population were already registered as refugees before the war, as many descended from Palestinians who were originally displaced in 1948.

While Gaza residents were able to own property and engage in business activity prior to October 2023, their rights were seriously undermined by the effects of periodic conflicts between Hamas and Israel, among other factors. Reconstruction of homes that were damaged or destroyed during past rounds of fighting lagged for many years, leaving thousands of people displaced or in temporary housing. Impediments to private enterprise in Gaza included persistent Israeli bans on imports of many raw materials. These restrictions were unilaterally adjusted by Israeli authorities based on political and security criteria.

As of late December 2023, more than 60 percent of Gaza’s housing units had reportedly been destroyed or damaged in the conflict that began in October. Private business activity also largely ceased during the fighting and bombardment.

Score Change: The score declined from 1 to 0 because the ongoing war caused heavy damage to many residential and commercial properties.

Palestinian laws and societal norms, derived in part from religious law, put women at a disadvantage in matters such as marriage and divorce. Hamas has imposed restrictions on personal attire and behavior that it deems immoral, and while enforcement has relaxed somewhat in recent years, both official and social pressures persist on some issues. A 2019 PA decree set 18 as the minimum age for marriage, but child marriage reportedly remains a problem.

So-called honor killings continue to occur, though information on the situation in Gaza is limited. Domestic violence is common, with nearly four in 10 Gazan women facing such violence, according to a 2019 PA survey. Both rape and domestic violence go underreported, and the perpetrators are often not held accountable, as authorities are allegedly reluctant to pursue such cases. Effective mechanisms for complaints and victim protection are lacking.

The long-standing blockade of the Gaza Strip’s land borders and coastline has greatly reduced economic opportunity in the territory over the years. Even before the war that began in October 2023, nearly 80 percent of Gazans relied on humanitarian aid, more than half lived in poverty, and nearly 80 percent of young people were unemployed, according to the United Nations. PA officials have little ability to enforce legal protections against exploitative labor conditions in Gaza, and most private-sector wage earners receive less than the legal minimum, which is itself lower than the poverty threshold.

Israel’s intermittent restrictions on the entry of construction materials have hampered growth and recovery from past conflicts, and Israeli patrols limited farming near the border fence as well as fishing in coastal waters. Hamas has imposed price controls that may have further dampened economic activity, and Israeli authorities accuse Hamas of diverting imported goods for military purposes, including tunnel construction.

Inconsistent access to fuel imports and electricity due to Israeli, PA, and Egyptian policies has hindered all forms of development in the territory, including domestic desalination projects that could improve access to clean water. Qatari aid to Gaza, including in the domain of fuel and electricity, has been inconsistent and dependent on the status of political agreements with Israel and Egypt.

The 2023 war imposed extreme new economic hardships on Gaza residents, with UN OCHA warning that the civilian population was at imminent risk of famine.