Israel's election ends without a clear winner, Netanyahu bloc leads 57 to 47 seats

Exit polls point to a near tie

Israelis voted on Tuesday, 27 October, and the exit polls left the two main blocs almost level. Channel 13 and the public broadcaster Kan each gave the bloc led by Benjamin Netanyahu and the bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot 51 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, with Arab parties at 18 seats in total. Channel 12 gave Netanyahu's bloc a narrow edge, 52 seats against 49, after an earlier estimate had put the opposition ahead, 52 to 50. In the updated Channel 13 and Kan projections, Likud rose to 27 seats, while Eisenkot's Yashar party was put at 22 and 21 seats, respectively, a reversal of earlier polls that had favoured Yashar.

The official count tilts toward Netanyahu

Official figures from the Central Elections Committee showed a different picture as ballots were counted. With 41.9% of polling stations counted at 5:58 am on Wednesday, 28 October, the Netanyahu bloc held 57 seats against 47 for the anti-Netanyahu bloc, and the Joint List and Ra'am shared the remaining 16. Likud led with 28 seats and Yashar followed with 21. At that stage, Reservists (2.7%), People of Israel (1.8%) and Charedi Public (0.3%) were all below the 3.25% threshold. By 7:10 am on Wednesday, with 77.7% of votes counted, the official figures still showed 57 seats for the Netanyahu bloc, 47 for the opposition and 16 for the Arab parties. The results remain provisional, because ballots from polling stations across the country and the so-called double envelopes, which include soldiers' votes, are still to be counted.

Netanyahu bloc57

Anti-Netanyahu bloc47

Arab parties16

Netanyahu bloc

57 seats

Anti-Netanyahu bloc

47 seats

Arab parties

16 seats

Data from the article text

Both leaders claim the result

Netanyahu addressed supporters from Likud's election centre in Jerusalem, saying Likud was the largest party in Israel and calling for a strong national right-wing government. He described the Arab parties as anti-Zionist, accused them of backing Hamas, and accused television networks of trying to sway voters through exit polls. He also said Israel had a unique opportunity, working with US President Donald Trump, to eliminate the Iranian threat. Eisenkot, a former chief of the Israeli military general staff who is 66, leads the Yashar party. Speaking to supporters in Tel Aviv overnight, he said he intends to form the next government and opposed a new election. He also warned Netanyahu against using Israel's security for political purposes. Opposition leaders described the outcome as a clear defeat for the prime minister.

Coalition arithmetic and what comes next

No side reaches the 61 seats needed for a majority in any of the figures reported so far. Netanyahu has warned against a government that depends on the Arab parties, and the opposition bloc would also need partners to form a majority. Netanyahu remains caretaker prime minister while talks continue, and those talks could last weeks. No party in Israel's history has secured 61 seats on its own, and Israelis have now gone to the polls five times in four years. This is the first national election since the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023.

A dispute over the country's identity

A New York Times profile, cited by Greek outlets, contrasts Simcha Rothman, 46, a figure of the hard right, with the opposing vision of a multicultural state based on the principles of the 1948 declaration of independence. Rothman has lived for 18 years in the Peney Kedem settlement on a hill in the West Bank, a settlement that has grown from 16 to 90 families since he moved there. Campaign posters for Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who leads the Religious Zionism party to which Rothman belongs, line the roads to the settlement. Rothman rejects any Palestinian state. International law regards Israel's occupation of the West Bank, now 59 years old, as illegal, a view shared by most of the world and by the roughly three million Palestinians who live there.