Israel's election has produced no clear winner, with exit polls showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc and the opposition led by Gadi Eisenkot level or a seat or two apart.
Neither is projected to reach the 61 seats generally needed to form a government. Official counting is under way.
What The Exit Polls Say
Channels 11 and 13 now put both blocs on 51 seats. Channel 12's updated poll gives Netanyahu's bloc 52 seats, ahead of Eisenkot's bloc.
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Likud is the largest single party in all the projections, at about 27 seats in the revised Channel 13 and Channel 12 polls. Eisenkot's Yashar party is second.
The first polls, released when voting closed at 10:00 p.m. local time, had Eisenkot's bloc on 52 seats and Netanyahu's on 50.
Channel 14, which is strongly pro-Netanyahu, showed his coalition on 60 seats and Eisenkot's on 43.
Arab Parties Hold The Balance
The two Arab-majority parties are projected to win 16-18 seats, nearly double the 10 they held in the outgoing Knesset. Without them, neither side has a path to a majority.
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Reactions
Eisenkot said the early projections showed "complete distrust in Netanyahu and the government of October 7", and his party has claimed the first right to try to form a government.He has also urged against a second election.
Netanyahu posted a video on election day claiming high turnout in Arab areas was part of an effort to "steal" the election, according to the Jewish Chronicle.
Record Turnout
Turnout was 77.7% when polls closed, the Central Elections Committee said, the highest at that stage since 1999. About 5.7 million people had voted. The first official tally covered just 2.5% of votes.
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Exit Polls Have Gone Wrong Before
In 2015, exit polls showed a tight race between Likud and the Zionist Union, but Likud won 30 of 120 seats to the opposition's 24. That makes the final count, which could take days, the real test.
What Happens Next
This is Israel's first national election since the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023 and it's joint attack with USA on Iran in February 2026. No party has ever won an outright majority, so a coalition is always needed.
The president consults party leaders and invites the one most likely to succeed. That candidate has 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension.
If talks fail, another candidate is tried, and if that also fails, fresh elections are called. Israel held five elections between 2019 and 2022 as parties struggled to co-operate. Weeks or months of negotiation are likely.
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