Overview
- Polls opened on Tuesday and about 7.3 million Israelis were eligible to vote, with the last pre‑vote surveys showing a near tie between Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar and no bloc assured of the 61 seats needed to form a government.
- Predicted gains for Arab‑led lists give them potential kingmaker power, and higher Arab turnout would make it easier, on paper, for opposition forces to assemble a majority without a single large party.
- The campaign was dominated by questions of security and accountability over the Oct. 7, 2023 failures, with Eisenkot pledging a state commission of inquiry and Netanyahu refusing such an investigation.
- Late campaign developments added international and military pressure: President Trump publicly endorsed Netanyahu shortly before the vote, and media reports of a Netanyahu–IDF dispute over Iran and the chief of staff intensified scrutiny of the prime minister’s wartime decisions.
- Final results may take days because about 600,000 soldier and special ballots are counted separately and any outcome will trigger lengthy coalition bargaining that could leave Netanyahu as caretaker with control over defence while the new government is formed.