Israel opened polling stations on Tuesday for the country’s first election since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a close contest after three years of war and deepening political divisions.
Some 7.3 million people are eligible to vote in an election shaped by questions over security, accountability and the country’s future direction. The latest opinion polls put Netanyahu neck‑and‑neck with his main centrist challenger, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot.
The ballot gives Israelis the chance to pass judgment on Netanyahu’s wartime leadership and the growing influence of his far‑right coalition partners. A narrow result could lead to weeks or months of negotiations before a new government emerges.
Hundreds of thousands of young Israelis are casting their first ballots, with surveys showing they overwhelmingly identify as centre‑right or right‑wing. Tens of thousands of Israelis have also travelled home from abroad to vote.
Most polling stations will close at 10 pm. Final results may take days, and no single party is expected to secure the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120‑member parliament.
Security and accountability
Netanyahu, 77, has served as prime minister on and off for more than 19 years. His campaign stresses his security record and his relationship with former US President Donald Trump, presenting him as Israel’s most reliable protector.
Since the Oct. 2023 attack, he has overseen military campaigns that devastated Gaza, extended Israeli occupation in southern Lebanon and carried out direct strikes against Iran with US backing.
Israeli citizens have also endured attacks from Iran, Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The wars have intensified scrutiny of Netanyahu’s leadership while Israel has become increasingly isolated internationally over its conduct in Gaza, settlement expansion and violence in the West Bank.
At home, one of the most persistent criticisms concerns Netanyahu’s refusal to accept responsibility for the security failures surrounding the Oct. 7 attacks, the deadliest day in Israel’s history.
Eisenkot, 66, has pledged to establish an independent state commission of inquiry into those failures – a step Netanyahu’s government has resisted.
The former military chief, a relative newcomer to politics, has promised a more restrained leadership style while seeking to rally voters across an informal opposition bloc stretching from the right to the centre‑left.
Coalition arithmetic
Eisenkot’s Yashar party leads that loose grouping, but removing Netanyahu would require agreement among parties with differing political priorities.
Eisenkot has ruled out supporting a Palestinian state and has backed Israeli settlements, while promising action against violent settlers.
Netanyahu returned to office in December 2022 at the head of a coalition that brought far‑right ultra‑nationalists into government. Their influence has grown sharply since then.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir cast his vote in Kiryat Arba, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu has faced opposition criticism over his support for ultra‑Orthodox parties that seek to preserve military service exemptions for religious Jewish students, despite personnel shortages in the armed forces.
Arab electoral lists, representing about 21 % of the population, could hold the balance of power. Neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot has publicly committed to partnering with those lists.
After voting in the northern town of Umm al‑Fahm, Yousef Jabareen, who heads one of the Arab‑majority lists, called for strong turnout to help defeat Netanyahu’s coalition.
With neither camp assured of a majority, coalition bargaining may prove as decisive as Tuesday’s vote. Failure to form a government could send Israelis back to the polls.
(with newswires)
