Around 30,000 soldiers in Gaza and on bases cast votes as of 10 a.m.

As of 10 a.m., some 30,000 active duty and reserve service members in the Gaza Strip and on military bases across Israel have cast ballots in the municipal elections, the Israel Defense Forces says.

After holding early voting for Israeli troops deployed to Gaza and other fronts, the IDF today opened up polling stations for all other soldiers. In a statement, the military says it is currently operating 570 polling sites around Israel.

Soldiers inside and outside Gaza started voting from February 20.

Because of the current conflict, the number of so-called “double envelope” ballots, cast outside of voters’ municipal jurisdictions due to various limitations, will stand at some 400,000 — a huge increase over 95,000 such ballots cast in the last municipal elections in 2018.

Earlier this month, Interior Ministry Director-General Ronen Peretz said that due to the large number of double-envelope ballots expected, it will likely not be possible to announce official election results until several days after the election.