Israel’s election has left Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition challenger Gadi Eisenkot without a clear path to power, as exit polls showed their blocs deadlocked despite record turnout and significant gains by Arab Israeli parties.
Eisenkot, a 66-year-old former military chief, vowed Wednesday to move quickly to form a government, saying voters had rejected Netanyahu’s divisive leadership.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, called for a strong right-wing government and highlighted the prospect of renewed military action against Iran alongside U.S. President Donald Trump.
Neither leader claimed victory. Exit polls from Israel’s three major television networks showed the competing blocs close to evenly matched, with neither securing the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
Kan 11 and Channel 13 projected a 51-51 tie, while Channel 12 gave Netanyahu’s Likud-led bloc a narrow 52-49 advantage. Final results were expected Thursday or Friday, leaving the country facing potentially prolonged coalition negotiations or another election.
Speaking to supporters in Tel Aviv, Eisenkot said the public had delivered a vote of no confidence in Netanyahu and urged the longtime prime minister to retire from politics.
“The public has voted for change,” Eisenkot said. “A worthy leader would accept the people’s vote of no confidence and announce his retirement from political life today.”
He also warned Netanyahu against using national security to advance his political interests, raising concerns about the prospect of renewed military action against Iran while the government’s future remained uncertain.
“Netanyahu, don’t you dare use Israel’s security for your political needs,” Eisenkot said.
Netanyahu did not immediately address supporters after the initial projections. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, an ally of the prime minister, dismissed the opposition’s victory claims as premature.
Arab parties emerge as potential kingmakers
Arab Israeli parties made some of the strongest gains, with exit polls projecting a combined 17 to 18 seats. Their increased representation could prove decisive in determining whether Netanyahu’s coalition returns to power.
Turnout reached 77.7%, according to Israel’s Central Elections Committee, the highest in more than two decades and about 7 percentage points above the 2022 election.
The strong participation included a surge among Palestinian citizens of Israel, many of whom voted to prevent Netanyahu’s nationalist-religious coalition from returning to government.
At the headquarters of the Joint List, an alliance of Arab parties, supporters celebrated as exit polls were released. Faten Gattas, a candidate for the alliance, pledged continued opposition to occupation and racism.
“We refuse the occupation and racism, and we will remain here,” she said in Nazareth.
Mansour Abbas, a prominent Arab Israeli political leader, said the right-wing camp had suffered a major defeat and indicated he was open to working with Eisenkot.
However, Eisenkot has largely ruled out forming a government with Arab lawmakers, complicating his route to power. Their parties could still support a minority government in parliamentary votes without formally joining a coalition.
Far-right leader Itamar Ben Gvir warned Netanyahu against forming a unity government with Eisenkot, calling such a move a mistake. Ben Gvir, a prominent supporter of Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich were projected to win a combined 13 seats, short of the gains some had expected.
Gideon Rahat, a political scientist at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said Ben Gvir’s polarizing campaign had helped mobilize Arab Israeli voters.
“Even if Netanyahu lost, that doesn’t mean Eisenkot won,” Rahat said.
Security dominates election aftermath
The election was held in the shadow of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas incursion, which killed about 1,200 people in Israel and saw 251 others taken hostage, according to Israeli figures.
The attack triggered the Gaza genocide and wider regional conflicts involving Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran.
Netanyahu campaigned on his security record, arguing that Israeli military operations against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iranian targets had made the country safer. He also emphasized his relationship with Trump as an opportunity to confront Iran.
Addressing Likud supporters in Jerusalem early Wednesday, Netanyahu said Israel faced a historic opportunity to eliminate what he described as the Iranian threat.
“Israel faces a singular historical opportunity, together with our partner President Trump, to remove the existential threat of Iran once and for all,” he said.
Eisenkot, who joined Netanyahu’s wartime government after the Hamas attack before resigning about eight months later, challenged the prime minister’s authority to make major security decisions without a clear public mandate.
He urged the security establishment to resist attempts to put political interests ahead of national security.
Despite presenting himself as a centrist on domestic politics, Eisenkot maintains a hawkish position on Palestinian issues. He opposes Palestinian statehood and says Hamas’ military wing must be destroyed or dismantled.
He has described Israel’s campaign in Gaza as a failure because Hamas remains in control. Gaza health authorities have reported more than 74,000 Palestinian deaths during the war.
Netanyahu faces familiar political challenges
The exit polls suggested a major setback for Netanyahu’s nationalist-religious coalition, which once held 68 seats but appeared far short of a majority.
Netanyahu, 77, has served as prime minister for nearly 19 years across several terms and has repeatedly survived political crises. After four inconclusive elections in two years, his opponents briefly removed him from office in 2021. He returned to power in December 2022.
His latest campaign included sharp attacks on Arab Israeli voters. Netanyahu accused them of trying to “steal the election,” while his Likud party unsuccessfully sought to keep polling stations open beyond their scheduled 10:00 p.m. closing time.
The opposition accused him of seeking grounds to challenge the results. Netanyahu also alleged that three senior officials from the United Arab List had been arrested in southern Israel with envelopes of cash. Election authorities described the incident as an isolated local case.
Netanyahu entered the election facing criticism over intelligence failures that allowed the Oct. 7 attack and longstanding corruption charges, which he denies. He also faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant related to the Gaza war.
His government’s policies have deepened Israel’s international isolation amid the war in Gaza, expanding settlements and violence in the occupied West Bank.
Eisenkot, meanwhile, has drawn public sympathy after losing his son Gal, who was killed fighting in Gaza, and two nephews during the war. Before voting, he privately visited his son’s grave.
The son of working-class Moroccan Jewish immigrants, Eisenkot would become Israel’s first prime minister of Middle Eastern or North African descent if he forms a government.
Coalition talks could drag on
The election’s outcome remains uncertain as votes are counted and smaller parties prepare to negotiate their role in the next government.
Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, described the exit polls as a major blow to Netanyahu’s coalition but cautioned that Eisenkot had not emerged as a clear winner.
The deadlock could allow Netanyahu to remain caretaker prime minister during lengthy negotiations. If neither camp can assemble a governing majority, another election may be necessary.
Some Israelis returned from abroad to vote. Eilana Zisblit, 55, who has lived in Canada for nearly three decades, traveled to Israel to support a center-right party in Eisenkot’s bloc.
“The country is going in a really, really bad direction,” she told Agence France-Presse (AFP), saying the situation affected Jews and Arabs in Israel as well as Jews abroad.
Eisenkot has urged political leaders to avoid another election, arguing that the record turnout demonstrated the public’s desire for change.