Netanyahu's camp leads without a majority after more than 70 percent of the votes were counted

Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition is ahead of the opposition bloc after more than 70% of the votes were counted, without obtaining a clear majority. The elections witnessed the highest turnout in decades. The elections seemed to a large extent to determine the Israelis’ position on Netanyahu, who is considered the longest serving prime minister in Israel’s history. He pushed the country strongly to the right, and fought a series of wars, starting with the response in the Gaza Strip to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and then against other parties in the region.

After the vote, both Netanyahu and his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, pledged to form a government, although estimates did not show that either of them would obtain a parliamentary majority. After 70.7% of the votes were counted, the results showed that Netanyahu's team won 54 seats out of 120 seats in the Knesset. On the other hand, the opposition coalition led by Eisenkot won 47 seats, while the Arab parties in Israel that did not fall within either camp won 18 seats. But these results are partial, not final, and are subject to change as vote counting continues.

Updated results of exit polls in Israel showed that the elections do not appear to produce a clear winner, with the results of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition close to the opposition coalition led by Gadi Eisenkot. The results of the three main television channels showed that Channels 11 and 13 gave each coalition 51 seats, while Channel 12 gave preference to Netanyahu’s bloc.

The Israeli Central Elections Commission announced that by one o'clock on Wednesday morning local time, votes had been counted in 78 polling stations out of more than 10,000 centers. The committee said that the official results will be updated regularly throughout the night on its website.

On Tuesday evening, the Central Elections Commission in Israel rejected a request from the Likud Party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend voting hours. The committee said in a statement: “The broad participation nationwide in all segments of society reflects strong popular involvement in the democratic process, and no reason was identified to extend voting hours.”

The Israeli Central Elections Commission announced that the voter turnout rate in the parliamentary elections taking place today, Tuesday, reached 66.7 percent as of 6 p.m., up from 57.7 percent at the same time in the 2022 elections. The Times of Israel quoted the committee as saying that this is the highest turnout rate up to this hour in recorded history.