The Israeli exit polls have begun flooding in, with many showing the opposition bloc of parties slightly ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition and the Arab parties surging in popularity.
Netanyahu’s Likud, however, outperformed many pre-election polls and to emerge as the biggest single party in several exit polls.
For example, the exit poll from Israel’s Channel 12, one of the country’s main networks, shows the opposition bloc, led by Gadi Eisenkot, scoring 52 seats in the Knesset, Netanyahu’s bloc 50 and the Arab parties 18.
This is a significant decline for Netanyahu’s bloc overall given 61 seats are required to form a parliamentary majority and his bloc won 64 seats at the most recent elections in 2022.
With no clear winner, it will likely set off weeks of jockeying before a leader is declared and leave Israel in political limbo.
A Palestinian citizen of Israel casts her ballot in Umm al-Fahm.AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean