Hamas beats Fatah to control major West Bank city: poll

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Hamas won control on
Thursday of the council of the West Bank city of Nablus,
beating the ruling Fatah party in a municipal vote seen as a
test of strength ahead of parliamentary elections, a poll
showed.

The survey by the Palestinian Center of Policy and Survey
Research said the militant group had won 68 percent of seats in
Nablus’s municipality, while President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah
garnered 16 percent. The city is home to about 187,000 people.