BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) - Palestinians voted for local councils in 84 towns and villages throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Thursday in a contest likely to deal yet another setback to Mahmoud Abbas' graft-tainted Fatah movement.

The militant Hamas group appeared poised to gain political ground, though some said Fatah is gaining renewed support and predicted it would fend off the challenge from the Islamic group. Exit polls by expert Khalil Shikaki said Fatah was leading in six of the first 14 West Bank locations he examined, while Hamas led in two. The others went to minor parties.

Turnout was strong, with 70 percent of voters going to the polls in the West Bank and 80 percent in Gaza, election officials said. The only reported incident of violence came from a town in central Gaza, where Hamas backers exchanged fire with police. One person was wounded. Each side blamed the other for the clash.

The elections - the third and largest of four rounds of municipal voting - could foreshadow results of July's parliamentary balloting and help consolidate recent gains by the militants Abbas is trying to co-opt but who Israel says must be crushed.

"We are very honest and work much more than the others," said Khaled Saada, a Hamas candidate for Bethlehem town council, citing Hamas-run schools, clinics and orphanages. "It is confirmed that we are much better at helping people."

Some 2,500 candidates from Hamas, Fatah and independent lists were competing for 906 local council seats in communities that included the major towns of Bethlehem and Qalqiliya in the West Bank and Rafah in Gaza.