Israelis began voting on Tuesday in an election that could determine Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future, as voters weigh his handling of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks, subsequent wars and growing international isolation. Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local time and were scheduled to close at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT), with opinion polls indicating a close contest and no clear path to power for either main political camp.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, with 19 years in office, is seeking to retain power amid criticism of the security failures preceding the October 7 attacks and divisions over his government’s policies. However, his Likud party and its right-wing allies could still emerge in a position to form a government under Israel’s fragmented parliamentary system.
His principal challenger is Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff who has attracted support from both the political right and centre. Eisenkot has criticised Netanyahu’s campaign, accusing him of “relying on a campaign of fear-mongering, lies and threats”. He has also said he expects US President Donald Trump to work “in full cooperation with any leader chosen by the people”.
Netanyahu has campaigned on his wartime leadership and his relationship with Trump, who has endorsed the Israeli prime minister and joined Israel in waging war on Iran. On Sunday, Netanyahu said Trump was prepared to act again to “finally” remove the Iranian threat, but only if he remained in office.
The Central Election Committee said 7.3 million Israelis were eligible to vote, including about 330,000 first-time voters. Neither candidate has a clear route to a governing majority in the 120-seat parliament. Netanyahu may depend on far-right politicians Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich to assemble a coalition. Both have faced sanctions from some Western countries over allegations of inciting violence against Palestinians, while Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party has gained support in opinion polls.
If neither political camp can form a coalition, Netanyahu could remain as caretaker prime minister until another election is held next year.
The election is the first since the October 7, 2023, attacks, in which Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. Israel subsequently launched a military offensive that devastated much of Gaza. Gaza health authorities say Israeli attacks have killed 74,000 people.
Israel has also inflicted heavy losses on Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and exchanged strikes with Iran before a 12-day aerial campaign against Iranian nuclear sites in 2025 and the joint US-Israeli war this year. Eisenkot has said the next government must prevent Iran from acquiring a military nuclear capability, either through force or a diplomatic arrangement backed by the United States.
For Netanyahu’s opponents, accountability for the October 7 security failures remains a central issue. Mali Hajaj, an Education Ministry employee supporting Eisenkot, said the establishment of a national inquiry was essential. “That’s where our healing will come from,” she said.
Other voters remain firmly behind the prime minister. Nof Gabay, an 18-year-old Likud supporter, rejected the claim that Netanyahu was responsible for the attacks and said he was “the right man for the state of Israel”. “Netanyahu managed the war in the best possible way,” he said.
Eisenkot opposes the two-state solution that has underpinned decades of peace negotiations with the Palestinians, but has criticised Jewish settler violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and opposed Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners. Although he has ruled out partnering with Arab parties, citing a lack of shared values, analysts say Arab parties could potentially support a minority government led by Eisenkot to remove Netanyahu from office.
Some former Likud supporters have also campaigned against Netanyahu, while his long-running corruption trial, in which he denies the charges, has contributed to disillusionment among some voters. Israeli political analyst Amotz Asa-El of the Shalom Hartman Institute said he expected the election to produce “only a slight majority either way. No landslide”.
