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Turnout for Israel’s 2026 elections is at its highest pace in more than 50 years, officials said — with Wonder Woman actor Gal Gadot among those who cast their ballot on Tuesday calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ouster.
Nearly 45% of voters have cast their ballots as of 2 p.m. local time, the highest turnout recorded at that hour since 1973, according to the Central Elections Committee.
That equates to nearly 3.3 million out of Israel’s 7.3 million voters, with citizens continuing to flock to the polls in a heated race between Netanyahu’s right-wing alliance and the opposition coalition led by ex military chief Gadi Eisenkot.
Gadot posted an Instagram story of herself voting Tuesday morning as she called on her fellow Israelis to make their voice count.
“That’s it, I’m exercising my right to vote, and I ask all of you to go out and exercise your most basic, most important, the most democratic right, and to vote for who you believe in,” Gadot said at her polling site.
“I’m voting for change, and I hope that today, Tuesday… that it will only be good for us all,” she added, blowing a kiss at the camera.
Israel is the only nation in a region still dominated by hereditary monarchs that has regular free and fair democratic elections. This is the Jewish state’s sixth election in seven years.
Gadot cast her ballot after receiving an honorary doctorate from Israel’s Bar-Ilan University on Monday night, where she also called on the crowd to head to the polls.
Though Gadot did not name who she voted for, opposition leader Eisenkot is the main figure in Israel’s so-called “change bloc,” which is running to oust Netanyahu, who has served as Israel’s longest running prime minister.
Prior to the election, nearly all of Israel’s major polls put Eisenkot’s Together coalition ahead of Netanyahu’s Likud and allied parties, but it remains to be seen if either side can secure the 61 seats necessary to claim the majority in the Knesset.
Along with a record pace turnout, the Israel Defense Forces said military turnout was also at a higher pace than the 2022 election, with at least 48% of registered voters coming out as of 1 p.m. local time.