Exit polls in the Israel election pointed to a tie between the two main blocs on Tuesday night, with neither side close to the 61 seats needed to form a government in the 120 seat Knesset. The polls, published by Channels 11, 12 and 13 after voting closed at 10 p.m. Israel time, gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc and the opposition bloc led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot about 51 seats each in two of the three projections. Other projections in the same set of exit polls put Netanyahu’s bloc at 50 to 52 seats and the opposition bloc at 49 to 53 seats, a range that still left both camps short of a majority.
Israel election exit polls show a tie
Netanyahu’s Likud party remained the largest single party in the projections, with 24 to 27 seats. Eisenkot’s Yashar party was projected at 21 to 23 seats. The gap between the largest party and its main rival was therefore small, and the balance of power in the Israel election depended on smaller parties and on the two blocs as a whole rather than on one party alone.
Israel election turnout and the Arab parties
Turnout in the Israel election reached 77.7 percent by 10 p.m., according to Central Elections Committee figures reported by Israeli media. That compared with 70.6 percent at the same hour in the 2022 election, and it was the highest figure at that hour since 1999. About 7.3 million Israelis were eligible to vote, including about 1.2 million Palestinian citizens of Israel, for all 120 members of the Knesset.
The Arab parties were projected to gain ground in the Israel election. The Joint List and Ra’am were projected to win a combined 17 to 19 seats, up from 10 seats between them in the outgoing Knesset. One breakdown put the Joint List at 11 seats and Ra’am at seven seats. Turnout among Arab Israelis, who make up 21 percent of the population, was reported at around 80 percent.
Israel election count and coalition talks
Counting in the Israel election was still under way on Wednesday morning, with more than 30 percent of votes tabulated in early reports. Netanyahu stays in office as interim caretaker while the count is completed and coalition talks begin. President Isaac Herzog has the power to assign the task of forming a government once the final results are known.
The campaign had run as a verdict on Netanyahu’s leadership, according to Israeli media coverage of the Israel election. Netanyahu, who has served more than 19 years as prime minister in total, campaigned on security. In a post on X during the campaign he wrote: “I do intend to permanently remove the Iranian nuclear threat.” Eisenkot told his final rally that Netanyahu would “stop at nothing” to stay in power. United States President Donald Trump endorsed Netanyahu during the campaign, calling him “an outstanding Warrior Prime Minister” in a post reported by Israeli media.
The next steps in the Israel election are procedural. The Central Elections Committee must complete the count, including votes that take longer to process. Herzog will then consult party leaders and give one of them the task of trying to build a coalition of at least 61 seats. If that attempt fails, the task can pass to another leader. Until a coalition is announced, the exit poll figures remain provisional, and neither bloc has the seats needed to govern on its own.