Israel's wartime election appeared deadlocked on Tuesday, exit polls showed, a potential setback for veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if the projections hold, with neither side having a clear path to power but rival Gadi Eisenkot's larger bloc potentially giving him the first chance to form a government. The stalemate could yet work in Netanyahu's favour, allowing him to remain in power in a caretaker capacity while parties try to forge a governing coalition. Turnout was 77.7%,Israel's Central Elections Committee said, the highest in more than two decades and around 7 percentage points higher than in the previous election in 2022.
Israel's three major networks updated their exit polls, giving Eisenkot's bloc a two-seat edge over Netanyahu's Likud-led camp, at 52-50. The remaining 18 seats were allocated to unaligned Arab parties in the exit polls. But Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, has all but ruled out forming a government with them, complicating his path to a majority despite his bloc's lead.
Read moreIsrael: First exit polls show no clear winner, Arab parties make gains Some Israeli media outlets, including pro-Netanyahu Channel 14, projected a far stronger showing for Netanyahu and his parties, saying they would collectively win 60 seats. Final results could take days, and Israel's fragmented political system leaves smaller parties potential kingmakers. No single party has ever won 61 seats outright in the 120-seat Knesset, making coalitions the norm.
It was the first election since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and the ensuing wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, called the exit polls a major defeat for Netanyahu's coalition, which they showed falling from 68 seats in the outgoing Knesset to about 50. But he said Eisenkot had not emerged as a clear winner.
Plesner cautioned that much could change as votes were counted. If the final result mirrored the exit polls, he said, Eisenkot could try to form a minority government that would remove Netanyahu from power, even if it lasted only until another election. To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement.
One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. While there was no clear outcome, the exit polls reflected the strength of the anti-Netanyahu opposition.
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