Benjamin Netanyahu‘s political future hangs in the balance as polls closed tonight in the Israeli election.
Early exit polls suggest the 77-year-old’s Likud party will remain the largest in the country’s parliament.
However, Israel faces fresh uncertainty after exit polls suggested neither of the two main rival blocs had secured enough seats to form a government.
According to Channel 12’s exit poll, Jewish-led parties opposed to Netanyahu are projected to win 52 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, narrowly ahead of the 50 seats expected to go to parties backing the Prime Minister.
Both camps remain well short of the 61 seats required for a majority, raising the prospect of difficult coalition negotiations and a prolonged political stalemate, In 2019-2022 Israel had 5 elections and there are fears of a repeat.
Arab-led parties, Ra’am and Joint list which also oppose Netanyahu, are projected to secure a record 18 seats, potentially giving them a key role in Israel’s political future.
A final outcome dependent on the official results is expected in the coming days.
The election is widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks of 2023, as well as the wars which have since shaken the Middle East. It marks the sixth time the country has gone to the polls in as many years.
A record 74 per cent of Israelis turned out to vote on Tuesday, marking a high since records began in 1974 when citizens voted following the Yom Kippur war against Egypt and Syria.
Throughout the day, Netanyahu had urged his supporters to cast their votes, calling it 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
His Likud party had requested that voting be extended beyond the country’s 10pm [8pm GMT] deadline, but a committee ultimately refused this, saying ‘the current circumstances do not justify an extension’.
Israelis vote for parties, which then form alliances to create a majority coalition. No single party has ever won a 61-seat majority in the 120-member parliament, or Knesset.
Opinion polls suggest a tight race, with no clear winner expected, setting the stage for weeks or even months of negotiations among around a dozen parties expected to win seats in the Knesset.
Emotions were running high throughout the country today with one voter in Jerusalem telling the Daily Mail: ‘This is critical, and it’s been as critical.’
She said she had come from kibbutz Nirim, which was attacked on October 7.
In Kiryat Shmona, a Netanyahu stronghold near the border with Lebanon, a man kicked and tore down a poster of the prime minister’s leading rival, 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.’
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.
