Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future was thrown into uncertainty Tuesday night as polls closed in Israel’s latest parliamentary election.
Initial exit polls indicated that the 77-year-old prime minister’s Likud party would remain the largest force in the Knesset.
Yet the projections also pointed to another unsettled result, with neither of the two main political blocs appearing to have won enough seats to form a government.
Channel 12’s exit poll projected that Jewish-led parties opposed to Netanyahu would take 52 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, narrowly surpassing the 50 seats forecast for parties supporting the prime minister.
Both sides remained well below the 61 seats needed for a majority. The result could trigger arduous coalition talks and another prolonged political deadlock, reviving memories of the five elections held in Israel between 2019 and 2022.
Arab-led parties, including Ra’am and the Joint List, which also oppose Netanyahu, were projected to win a record 18 seats. Their support could prove decisive in determining Israel’s next government.
The final result will depend on the official count, which is expected to emerge over the coming days.
The vote was widely viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership following the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and the wars that have continued to reshape the Middle East. It was also Israel’s sixth election in as many years.
Turnout reached a record 74 per cent, the highest level since records began in 1974, when Israelis voted after the Yom Kippur War against Egypt and Syria.
Throughout polling day, Netanyahu urged his supporters to vote, describing the election as an “emergency” and a “matter of life and death.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pictured in Jerusalem today
Netanyahu’s main rival, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, is pictured in Tel Aviv
Voters celebrate the early exit-poll results in Tel Aviv
Women pop bottles of champagne as others dance and celebrate
Likud had asked for voting to continue beyond the country’s 10pm [8pm GMT] closing time. However, an election committee rejected the request, saying that “the current circumstances do not justify an extension.”
Israeli voters choose parties rather than individual candidates, with those parties then negotiating alliances to build a governing coalition. No single party has ever secured the 61 seats required for a majority in the 120-member Knesset.
Opinion polls had pointed to a closely fought contest with no obvious winner, setting the scene for weeks or potentially months of negotiations among the roughly dozen parties expected to enter parliament.
Tensions remained high across Israel. One voter in Jerusalem told the Daily Mail: “This is critical, and it’s been as critical.”
She said she had travelled from Kibbutz Nirim, which was attacked during the October 7 assault.
In Kiryat Shmona, a Netanyahu stronghold near Israel’s border with Lebanon, a man kicked and ripped down a poster showing the prime minister’s leading challenger, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot.
In Tel Aviv, some families of those killed in the Hamas-led 2023 attack and families of former hostages held a moment of silence.
‘Remember all those whose voices are no more,’ said Yona Adam, the mother of Mapal Adam, who was killed.
At a polling station set up in a Jerusalem school, some said they were voting for change while others said they only trusted Netanyahu to keep them secure.
‘He’s not responsible for October 7,’ said Nisim Cohen, a reservist.
He said he wants Netanyahu to win the election and continue the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and with Iran until Israelis can sleep peacefully.
Zipporah Bennett, an 85-year-old retiree, also said she was voting for Netanyahu ‘because he has had the experience of navigating the country through a lot of difficult seasons’, praising his support from the US and adding: ‘He’s a man who’s not afraid to take action.’
Alexandra, a 65-year-old voter in Jerusalem, said: ‘I want change in our country. I want a good democratic centrist government.’
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Some 7.3 million people are eligible to vote, with hundreds of thousands of young people due to cast their ballot for the first time. Surveys show they overwhelmingly identify as centre-Right or Right-wing.
Tens of thousands of Israelis are estimated to have flown in from abroad to vote in an election seen as crucial to deciding the future character of their country.
Turnout in the first three hours of the election was the highest at that stage since 1981, with the Central Elections Committee giving a figure of 16.68 percent.
‘I think this is one of the most important election days in the history of the state of Israel,’ Uriel Brandler, a 58-year-old real estate agent, said from Jerusalem the day before the vote, saying he hoped for change.
A record 74 per cent of Israelis turned out to vote on Tuesday, marking a high since records began in 1974
Israeli settlers line up to vote at a school serving as a polling station during Israel’s general election in the settlement of Kiryat Arba
People prepare to vote at a polling station in Umm al-Fahm, Israel
Netanyahu, who was seen casting his vote in Jerusalem, called on Israelis to vote ‘the right way’ on Tuesday.
Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s top rival, was up and meeting voters as polls opened in Ofakim, one of the communities in southern Israel that was attacked by Hamas-led militants on October 7. Eisenkot lost his son and two nephews to combat in Gaza.
The visit was likely aimed at reminding voters of the security failures ahead of the deadliest militant attack on Israel in its history, and of Netanyahu’s refusal of a state commission of inquiry into them.
Meanwhile, wearing his trademark noose-shaped lapel pin, hard-Right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir cast his ballot in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, where his supporters had set up banners and speakers
Thousands of volunteer Israeli election observers were in place at polling stations across the country to monitor the election.
Eyal Sher said he volunteered with a civil society group called Elections Guards because he wanted to play a role in such a critical vote.
‘We have a corrupt government that will do anything to stay in power,’ he said. ‘Every vote counts and we want to make sure the procedures are kept intact.’
According to Israel’s Central Election Committee, more than 7.3 million Israelis are eligible to vote, including around 330,000 young Israelis who spent their high school years in the shadow of war.
The polling stations – around 12,000 of them – will close in most places at 10 pm. Ballots are manually counted at each polling station immediately after voting ends.
Netanyahu has been Israel’s most dominant politician for nearly two decades, and a poor showing could end the 77-year-old’s lengthy career on a bitter note and open the door to a new era in Israeli politics.
A victory would cement his image as the ultimate political survivor. Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump backed Netanyahu’s reelection, but the late endorsement still marked a setback for the Likud politician who had billed his tight ties to the Republican president as a selling point for staying in power.
Netanyahu has been a master at forming coalitions with religious and nationalist partners.
But opinion polls now suggest a tight race between his bloc and the one led by Eisenkot, which says Netanyahu should be held accountable for October 7 and the failure to turn battlefield victories into diplomatic achievements.
Eisenkot has pledged to establish an independent state commission of inquiry into the security failures that led to the attack, something Netanyahu’s government has resisted.
Seeking to unseat the premier is an informal bloc of parties led by Eisenkot’s Yashar and spanning from the Right to the centre-Left – including former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, as well as seasoned politician Avigdor Lieberman and Left-leaning Yair Golan.
Neither Eisenkot nor Netanyahu has publicly said they would partner with the predominantly Arab lists, which represent some 21 percent of Israel’s population and who could become kingmakers if the results are as close as expected.
The deadliest day in Israel’s history has featured prominently in the campaign, but there has been almost no debate over Israel’s wartime conduct in Gaza, which led to an international arrest warrant against Netanyahu.
Israel’s occupation of much of southern Lebanon and parts of Syria, as well as its two wars launched against Iran, also has broad support among Israelis.
The candidates have instead focused on Netanyahu’s role in the security breakdown on October 7 as well as his efforts to exempt ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service and a 2023 judicial overhaul seen by critics as an assault on Israel’s democratic institutions.