Israel Election Results Live: As counting began in Israel on Tuesday night, the first exit polls gave the opposition bloc a slight edge over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. Though, neither side is close to an outright majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
That was enough to form a government with smaller far-right parties, after Netanyahu’s usual partners were put off by the corruption cases against him. Arab voters came out in large numbers, and the polls suggest it helped their parties. Even then, the count is only the first step. Forming a government could take days or weeks. Turnout was a record high. The war that followed has lasted three years. It has left most of Gaza devastated and driven almost the entire population from their homes.
The country’s main pollsters, Channels 11, 12 and 13, projected that the opposition bloc would win 52 or 53 seats. They put Netanyahu’s bloc at 50. Polls showed Netanyahu’s Likud would be the largest single party in the Knesset, with 24 or 25 seats. At the previous election, Likud won 32 seats. Raam and the Joint List, the two groupings with Arab majorities, are projected to take 17 or 18 seats together. Netanyahu’s main challenger, Gadi Eisenkot of the Yashar party, said, “The initial exit poll results indicate a complete lack of confidence in Netanyahu and the October 7 government. The final tally is due within the next 48 hours, though an official result is unlikely before Thursday. It is also the first election since the October 7 Hamas attack, which has been described as the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Yair Lapid, who leads the current opposition, said Netanyahu’s bloc had suffered a “crushing defeat”. The left-wing leader Yair Golan said the public had “fired the Netanyahu government”.
