Palestinian police confiscated candidate lists distributed to voters outside polling stations in several Gaza districts on Wednesday.

Supporters of the ruling Fatah movement and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) distributed lists of candidates for the Palestinian legislative elections outside polling stations since early Wednesday to tell voters which list and candidates to vote for.

Hamas supporters wearing the group's trademark green hats and bandanas gave voters lists before they entered a polling station in the Shaati refugee camp in the Gaza City.

Many of the supporters were women in full length black robes with veils covering their faces.

Elsewhere in the northern Gaza Strip, Fatah supporters, in the group's yellow hats, also distributed candidate lists to voters.

One of the young supporters shouted out and urged voters to vote for list 11, which is the Fatah slate, and choose number 17 to 21 candidates who run in the elections on behalf of Fatah in the northern Gaza constituency.

Police confiscated the lists distributed by both Fatah and Hamas and gave them back to voters who have left the polling stations after voting.

Some 13,000 police have been deployed to protect the polling stations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Polls opened at 7:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) on Wednesday morning as about 1.43 million eligible voters are expected to elect a new 132-member parliament in the second ever Palestinian legislative elections.

The ballot is set to witness fierce competition between Fatah and Hamas as the latter is expected to do well in its first parliamentary run.