Israel's wartime election appeared deadlocked on Tuesday, exit polls showed, a potential setback for veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if the projections hold, with neither side having a clear path to power but rival Gadi Eisenkot's larger bloc potentially giving him the first chance to form a government.
The stalemate could yet work in Netanyahu's favour, allowing him to remain in power in a caretaker capacity while parties try to forge a governing coalition.
Turnout was 77.7%, Israel's Central Elections Committee said, the highest in more than two decades and around 7 percentage points higher than in the previous election in 2022.
Israel's three major networks updated their exit polls, giving Eisenkot's bloc a two-seat edge over Netanyahu's Likud-led camp, at 52-50.
The remaining 18 seats were allocated to unaligned Arab parties in the exit polls. But Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, has all but ruled out forming a government with them, complicating his path to a majority despite his bloc's lead.
Read moreIsrael: First exit polls show no clear winner, Arab parties make gains
Some Israeli media outlets, including pro-Netanyahu Channel 14, projected a far stronger showing for Netanyahu and his parties, saying they would collectively win 60 seats.
Final results could take days, and Israel's fragmented political system leaves smaller parties potential kingmakers. No single party has ever won 61 seats outright in the 120-seat Knesset, making coalitions the norm.
It was the first election since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and the ensuing wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, called the exit polls a major defeat for Netanyahu's coalition, which they showed falling from 68 seats in the outgoing Knesset to about 50. But he said Eisenkot had not emerged as a clear winner.
Plesner cautioned that much could change as votes were counted. If the final result mirrored the exit polls, he said, Eisenkot could try to form a minority government that would remove Netanyahu from power, even if it lasted only until another election.
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ANTI-NETANYAHU BOOST
While there was no clear outcome, the exit polls reflected the strength of the anti-Netanyahu opposition.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a statement: “Don’t let anyone confuse you: the Netanyahu bloc has suffered a crushing defeat. This is a total collapse and the public has told them to go home.”
Eisenkot, 66, a hawkish former military chief who lost a son and two nephews in the Gaza war, emerged as Netanyahu's strongest challenger, stressing his security credentials while positioning himself as a centrist domestically.
He entered politics only four years ago and joined Netanyahu's war cabinet after the 2023 Hamas attack, but quit eight months later, criticising the prime minister's leadership.
Eisenkot offers a break with Netanyahu's leadership and far-right allies, but not with the hardline approach to security that has become more entrenched since the 2023 Hamas attack: He opposes Palestinian statehood and says Hamas' military wing must be destroyed or dismantled.
Eisenkot says Israel's response — a war that has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities —was a failure because Hamas remains in charge.
"Dear Democrats, a decision was made," Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats party and a Netanyahu rival, said at a party rally after polls closed. "The nation has given us a sacred duty: to translate the trust they have placed in us into action, to fortify democracy, to save Israel and to provide true defense for the state."
The headquarters of the Joint List, an alliance of several Arab parties, burst into whistles and applause when exit polls were released at the close of voting, on a historic night for turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel.
“We refuse the occupation and racism, and we will remain here,” said Faten Gattas, a candidate in the Joint List, in a speech at the alliance’s headquarters in Nazareth.
Candidates hoped that high Arab voter participation would allow them to play a decisive role in preventing Netanyahu’s coalition – the most far-right in Israel's history – from returning to power.
Read moreIbrahim Abu Ahmad on Israeli election: 'Crucial for Arab citizens to have ally in Jewish community'
A RECORD TURNOUT
Long lines had formed outside polling stations as voters turned out in huge numbers, grappling with the trauma of Israel's deadliest day, when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, and the wars in Gaza and with Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iran that followed.
While Netanyahu was criticised for the country's biggest security failure, he argued that he had made Israel and the world safer by assassinating top leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.
The policies of Netanyahu's right-wing coalition have been divisive at home and deepened Israel's international isolation, but he has portrayed himself as the leader with the mettle to face down Israel's foes.
Netanyahu, 77, has served as prime minister for nearly 19 of the past 30 years and has repeatedly survived political crises.
His opponents have managed to wrest the premiership from him only once since 2009, after four inconclusive elections in two years. Eighteen months later, he was back.
He entered the election facing longstanding corruption charges, which he denies, and criticism over intelligence failures that allowed Hamas-led militants to carry out their attack.
Netanyahu campaigned on an endorsement from US President Donald Trump, his ally in the war against Iran.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)