Elections in Israel, polls open in the country for the first time after October 7. LIVE

Polls open in Israel where today - from 6am to 9pm, Italian time - the first political elections are being held after the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 and the war that followed, in Gaza and then in Lebanon and Iran. We vote to renew the Knesset, i.e. the parliament, and to define the next government. A head-to-head match is expected between the outgoing Prime Minister Netanyahu and his challenger Eisenkot.

There are over 7 million voters and there are 36 parties in the running, of which only 13 are detected in the polls because they exceed the threshold of 3.25%. The exit polls will be announced immediately when the polls close, but the final results will be made official only eight days after the vote, i.e. on November 4th. This is because counting "double envelopes", i.e. those who vote far from their place of residence, such as soldiers, diplomats and hospitalized people, takes longer. At stake in this election is not only the future of the Jewish State, but also the balance in the Middle East.

While the country is voting, the Israeli Defense Forces, the border police and the Shin Bet launched an operation overnight in the Nablus area in the West Bank "to counter terrorism, as part of a large-scale operation that will take place in the region in the coming days". The operation involves the destruction of monuments that incite terrorism, the arrest of individuals wanted for arms trafficking and terrorism, the interrogation of suspects and the search of buildings with information indicating the presence of weapons. According to reports from Palestinian sources, the IDF have begun to destroy the monument to the "martyrs" in the village of Rujeib, east of Nablus, which commemorates the names of terrorists.

The polls for the formation of the 26th Knesset opened at 7 local time (6 in Italy). This is the first vote since the October 7 attack. There are approximately 7 million and 331 thousand Israelis called to vote today until 10pm local time (9pm in Italy). There are 36 parties in the running, of which only 13 are detected in the polls because they exceed the threshold of 3.25%. The exit polls will be announced immediately as the polls close, but the final results will not be made official until eight days after the vote, on November 4. The counting of 'double envelopes' - i.e. those who vote far from their place of residence, such as soldiers, diplomats, hospitalized people - takes longer and in the past has overturned the results that emerged from the initial exit polls.