{"id":816237,"date":"2026-10-28T06:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T06:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/816237\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T06:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T06:26:11","slug":"israel-election-too-close-to-call-as-exit-polls-give-netanyahu-bloc-slightly-fewer-seats-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/816237\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel election too close to call as exit polls give Netanyahu bloc slightly fewer seats | Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Israel\u2019s election appeared to have delivered no clear winner on Tuesday night after a historic turnout by voters for an election described by some as the most consequential in the country\u2019s history, and marked by a record participation by Israeli Arab voters.\n<\/p>\n

Exit polls published on Tuesday evening suggested that the opposition bloc of parties led by the former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Gadi Eisenkot, would win most seats in the Knesset by a slight margin, edging out Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>\u2019s right and far-right coalition despite the prime minister\u2019s Likud emerging as the largest party.<\/p>\n

The result is likely to set off weeks of jockeying over who can form a coalition government before a prime minister is declared or another round of elections is called, but represents a sharp electoral rebuke to Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

\"IsraeliIsraeli candidates cast their votes in consequential election \u2013 video<\/p>\n

After a day in which Israelis streamed to polling stations across the country, exit polls suggested Netanyahu\u2019s ability to command the loyalty of a large core of Likud party voters remained undimmed despite his rejection by large numbers of Israelis.<\/p>\n

The predicted haul of up to 18 Knesset seats for Israeli Arab parties is likely to make them the kingmakers in what seem certain to be protracted talks to form a new government, with Netanyahu likely to fall short of the support required to form a new coalition.<\/p>\n

While Eisenkot could theoretically assemble a majority by forming a government with the Arab parties, he ruled that out before the election.<\/p>\n

The exit polls \u2013 if they prove accurate \u2013 suggest a struggle for either Likud or Eisenkot\u2019s Yashar to find a road to a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. Likud\u2019s projected showing, not for the first time, appears to have defied predictions in the run-up to the vote.<\/p>\n

However, the \u200bstalemate could yet work in Netanyahu\u2019s favour, allowing the prime minister to remain in power in a caretaker capacity. What is clear, however, is that Netanayhu no longer has a claim to a mandate with his political fate hanging in the balance.<\/p>\n

Opposition figures were quick to cast the exit polls as a defeat for Netanyahu, with former prime minister Yair Lapid saying: \u201cNetanyahu\u2019s bloc has suffered a crushing defeat. This is a total collapse. The public has told them to get out.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his part Eisenkot called the exit polls a vote of \u201cno-confidence in Netanyahu. If these are the final results, it\u2019s a complete victory for Israel\u2019s mainstream majority. I\u2019ll work immediately to enact the will of the nation, to change Netanyahu\u2019s government \u2026 as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exit polls were released after a last-ditch effort by Netanyahu and several other parties to keep polling stations open beyond their 10pm deadline was rejected by the Central Elections Committee. The prime minister had suggested publicly that efforts were being made by the \u201cleft and Arabs\u201d to steal the election, a claim rejected by the committee that said it had seen no evidence of systematic tampering.<\/p>\n

Entangled in a long-running corruption trial, Netanyahu and his far-right coalition had stoked xenophobic fears and suggested Israel would be vulnerable to a nuclear attack without him.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s election, which drew the highest turnout in 50 years, had been framed as a referendum on nearly 17 years of unbroken rule by Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>, who has most recently overseen three years of unprecedented conflict, instability and growing international isolation.<\/p>\n

With more than 7 million people eligible to vote, by 6pm voter turnout was 77.1% \u2013 a rise of about 9% on the previous election \u2013 with marked increases in the number of serving military members voting. There were also reports of tens of thousands of Israelis living abroad who had arrived to vote in recent days, with many still arriving at Ben Gurion airport to cast their ballots on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Voting was heavy in a number of major cities, including Tel Aviv and Haifa, which some analysts had suggested would benefit the opposition, with long queues to vote in some locations. That pattern was repeated in Israeli-Arab towns, many of which have a long history of boycotting elections.<\/p>\n

Israeli-Arab voters arrive to cast their ballots at a polling station in Nazareth. Photograph: Adri Salido\/Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

As polls opened on Tuesday, Netanyahu and his far-right coalition allies launched what critics condemned as a scare campaign to encourage their supporters to turn out, with the familiar racist tactic of warning that large numbers of Israeli Arabs would be voting. Netanyahu made a similar claim to rally support in 2015.<\/p>\n

In a recorded message to voters, Netanyahu suggested Arabs and the left were trying to steal the election and Likud claimed suspected irregularities at hundreds of polling stations used by Israeli Arabs.<\/p>\n

Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin make up about 20% of the country\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

That prompted Netanyahu\u2019s main challenger, Gadi Eisenkot, to say Netanyahu was laying the ground to challenge the result.<\/p>\n

A Likud election poster at a polling station in Jerusalem. Photograph: Jewel Samad\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cNetanyahu has returned to his familiar tricks, lies and fearmongering to mobilise voters,\u201d he said. \u201cThe same lies we saw in previous election campaigns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the deadly attack launched by Hamas on Israel\u2019s southern communities on 7 October 2023 \u2013 an event that many blamed on Netanyahu\u2019s failings \u2013 Israel has devastated Gaza with the loss of more than 74,000 Palestinian lives, fought Hezbollah in Lebanon, occupied new territory in Syria and launched a war with the US against Iran.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners have also attracted international opprobrium for Israel\u2019s actions in the occupied West Bank, where violent Jewish settlers have been accused of pogroms against Palestinians and ethnic cleansing.<\/p>\n

A Palestinian family walk past campaign posters for Israel\u2019s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, in Beit Kahil in the West Bank. Photograph: Ilia Yefimovich\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Despite the many issues confronting the country, much of the focus in the campaign has been on the contrasting characters of the two main party leaders \u2013 the machiavellian, grandstanding Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, against Eisenkot, the unpolished former IDF chief of staff who rose from humble origins.<\/p>\n

The campaign, unusually febrile even by Israeli standards, included a struggling Netanyahu posting a picture of a nuclear explosion devastating Tel Aviv on the eve of the polls opening.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, encouraging ultra-orthodox voters, Netanyahu \u2013 who has long elided his personal and political survival with that of Israel \u2013 returned to his apocalyptic language. \u201cThe Jewish state is on the brink of ruin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the midst of a major trial for corruption, which has been moving at a glacial pace through the courts, Netanyahu has appeared rattled by the challenge mounted against him by an array of centre-right parties whose unifying pitch has been \u201canyone but Netanyahu\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very moving and fateful moment,\u201d he told journalists after voting, saying he believed the Arab parties that could make or break the election were \u201creceiving massive, truly massive support \u2026 heading to the polls in unprecedented numbers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite tonight\u2019s results, the complexity of Israel\u2019s fragmented political system, with many parties jostling and horse trading, means that it will probably be some time before the shape of any future government \u2013 and who will lead it \u2013 is clear.<\/p>\n

All of which has amplified the importance of Israeli Arab parties, which could emerge as potential kingmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur vote will change the government,\u201d the head of the Islamist Ra\u2019am party, Mansour Abbas, said while voting, adding that he hoped turnout would surpass 70% in Arab communities.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, known for taunting Palestinian detainees and saying some Palestinians in Gaza are \u201cnot even people\u201d, said \u201cit will be Mansour Abbas\u2019s government\u201d if Netanyahu and his allies lose.<\/p>\n

Underlining the sense of a country at a defining crossroads, an editorial in the left-leaning Haaretz publication had exhorted Israelis to vote, which they did in huge numbers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael cannot afford another four years under Netanyahu,\u201d it said. \u201cIt has exhausted its reserves. The erosion of its diplomatic credit has reached dangerous proportions, and its tired citizens are at the very limits of what they can bear.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s election appeared to have delivered no clear winner on Tuesday night after a historic turnout by voters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-816237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}