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.
The Israeli Central Election Commission announces that at 12 pm (11 am in Italy) the turnout at the national level stood at 31.5%, equal to 2 million voters. It is the highest figure since the historic elections of 1977, in which the Likud won for the first time after years of Labor governments since the foundation of the state.
"It is a decisive moment, we know what is at stake. Vote for the future of the State of Israel." Benjamin Netanyahu stated this in a message released by his office. The outgoing prime minister is adopting the strategy of showering messages on social media, with videos, through his office.
''Likud voters, this is an emergency call because they are trying to steal our vote. This morning the police arrested 3 leaders of Ra'am in the south who had envelopes with cash to influence the vote. You have been warned: the turnout among Arab voters in the South is enormously higher than that of Jews, you must go and vote! Bring grandma, aunt, neighbor, no beach or barbecue today. Either a strong right-wing government led by Likud with our allies, or a left-wing government with Arab parties that will lead to the end of Israel as we know it to date,'' he added.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's Together party has accused Likud representatives of illegally tracking voters at polling stations and transmitting information about them via an app, despite being banned by the Supreme Court. According to Yedioth Ahronoth, Degel HaTorah, a faction of United Torah Judaism, also instructed members of its election committee to report voter turnout percentages throughout the day. Last week the High Court of Justice ruled that party representatives at polling stations cannot use digital means to communicate voter turnout in real time, which is officially communicated by the CEC four times a day.
''Dear Itamar, how many times will you repeat this bluff? You will cross the threshold, be part of our strong right-wing government led by me, and we will continue to work together for the State of Israel. One more or less mandate for you will not change anything, but if Eisenkot obtains one more mandate than the Likud, the President will entrust him with the task of forming a government and we will end up with a government that will cry for generations''. The Likud wrote this on behalf of Prime Minister Netanyahu in a note, in response to what was stated by the ultra-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir, according to which Netanyahu ''has committed himself to the US administration to form a government of national unity with Eisenkot and without me after the elections.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog was among the first to vote in Jerusalem together with his partner Michal Herzog. In Tel Aviv, on the day of the polls, the families of the hostages gathered to urge Israelis to vote "for change, justice and a better future". Some party leaders have also already expressed their preferences. Far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich, president of Religious Zionism, voted in the West Bank settlement of Kedumin, urging voters to mobilize friends and family to go to the polls.
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.
