No clear winner emerged in Israel's election on Tuesday, according to exit polls from the country's main television networks, leaving the country in political limbo after its first national vote since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023.
Exit polls published by Channels 11, 12 and 13 showed both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc and the opposition bloc led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot falling short of the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. The projections put Netanyahu's bloc at 50 to 52 seats and Eisenkot's bloc at 49 to 53, depending on the channel — a statistical dead heat.
A record turnout, no majority
Voter turnout reached 77.7% when polls closed, the highest in more than two decades and around seven percentage points higher than in 2022, according to Israel's Central Elections Committee. It was the highest turnout recorded at that hour since at least 1973.
Netanyahu's Likud was projected to remain the largest single party with 27 seats, while Eisenkot's Yashar party was expected to win 20 to 22 seats. The opposition bloc declared victory shortly after the exit polls were released, but neither side appeared to have a clear path to forming a coalition.
"Neither bloc is projected to win a majority of seats," the exit polls showed, with final results expected to take days.
Arab parties could hold the balance of power
The Joint List and Ra'am were projected to win a record-breaking combined 17 to 19 seats — nearly double the 10 they held in the outgoing Knesset — potentially making Arab parties pivotal to coalition negotiations.
But Eisenkot has largely ruled out forming a government with the Arab parties, with the exception of the Democrats' Yair Golan, who has left the door open. That leaves his path to 61 seats complicated. Far-right religious parties led by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich were projected to take a combined 13 seats within Netanyahu's bloc.
What happens now
An inconclusive result would leave Israel in political limbo, allowing Netanyahu to remain in power in a caretaker capacity while parties try to forge a governing coalition — a process that could take days, weeks or even months.
Eisenkot, addressing cheering supporters in Tel Aviv, declared that "the Israeli public has voted against Netanyahu's service as Israel's prime minister" and said "a worthy leader would have accepted the people's nonconfidence and announced today his retirement from politics." He also warned against calling another election, urging Netanyahu: "Don't you dare to use Israel's security for your own political gain."
The election was widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's leadership during the wars that followed the October 7 attacks, including the war in Gaza and the attacks on Lebanon and Iran. Exit polls can be wrong, and preliminary results expected in the coming hours may differ from the projections.