Israel postpones local elections due to war in Gaza

The Israeli cabinet voted unanimously to sign an order to postpone the municipal elections until February 27 during a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Report informs via The Jerusalem Post.

The decision was made after a cabinet meeting last week where data from the IDF revealed that 688 candidates for 144 cities and towns were currently serving in reserves and couldn't be spared for elections.

This comes after weeks during which a debate raged on whether the municipal elections should be delayed again after they were supposed to take place at the end of October and were then moved to January 30.

Members of the government, most notably the Religious Zionist Party and Otzma Yehudit, had urged Interior Minister Moshe Arbel to push off the elections again, but for weeks, he refused, saying that there was no justification for it.

Last week, however, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi sent Arbel a letter detailing the challenges the army would face holding elections in January, and Arbel changed his mind.