The Palestinian Authority announced it will hold municipal elections in May in the West Bank, without including the Gaza Strip. The announcement means that plans for the first municipal elections in both the West Bank, which is controlled by Fatah, and the Gaza Strip, dominated by the Islamist Hamas, had fallen through. The Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority made several attempts to convince Hamas to participate in the elections but did not succeed. Elections were last held in the West Bank and Gaza simultaneously in 2006. Meanwhile, Facebook closed down the official page of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party as part of a campaign against accounts that promote violence. Munir Jaghoub, a spokesman for Fatah, told The Jerusalem Post that he believed the page was closed because of an iconic photo of PA President Yasser Arafat grasping a rifle, while standing alongside Fatah Vice Chairman Mahmoud al-Aloul.