Salamah Yacoub was only 12 when Palestinians last voted for a president and yesterday, as the 21-year-old cast his ballot at a Ramallah refugee camp, he said he felt he was deciding his destiny.

"We started our uprising to recover al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. So far, we have got neither al-Aqsa nor anything else. Instead, it destroyed us," said Mr Yacoub. "I hope the victor will be able to end the intifada in exchange for peace."