Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to his supporters at Likud party headquarters in Jerusalem after the release of the first exit poll results in Israel's general election, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo)
The camp of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was ahead of his rival’s opposition bloc but still short of a majority on Oct. 28, as Arab parties secured historic gains in the key elections.
After turnout reached nearly 78 percent, its highest level since 1999, voters delivered their verdict on Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, who has steered the country sharply to the right and launched a series of wars in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Polls estimated voter turnout among Arab citizens of Israel at around 80 percent.
Following the vote, both Netanyahu and his main rival Gadi Eisenkot vowed to form a government despite neither being projected to win a majority.
With 84.5 percent of ballots counted, Netanyahu’s bloc was shown to have 54 of the 120 seats in the parliament.
Eisenkot’s opposition bloc had 49 seats and the country’s non-aligned Arab parties had 17.
The partial results are likely to change as more votes are counted.
Exit polls had shown that Eisenkot, a former military chief and political novice, and his opposition bloc were neck-and-neck with Netanyahu’s hard-right camp, with both winning about 51 seats, well away from the threshold for a majority.
The strongest gains went to Arab Israeli parties whose voters turned out in soaring numbers against Netanyahu, who has relentlessly warned that the minority would dilute the Jewish nationalist direction in which he has taken Israel.
The partial results suggest that Eisenkot’s bloc would have enough seats for a majority if it entered into a coalition agreement with the Arab parties, something most of its members expressed reluctance to do on the campaign trail.
But Yair Golan, the head of Israel’s main left-wing party, which is part of Eisenkot’s camp, called for precisely that on Oct. 28.
“We must no longer accept Netanyahu’s racist division between Jewish votes and Arab votes,” he said on X. “We have a responsibility. And we have an opportunity to form a government of change in partnership with Israel’s Arab citizens.”
Eisenkot had said during the campaign he would not govern with Israeli Arab lawmakers, echoing the position of Netanyahu, who has suggested a government relying on Arab votes would lack legitimacy.
Arab lawmakers could also give Eisenkot support in parliamentary votes on an ad hoc basis, enabling him to maintain a minority government without joining a coalition.
A lack of clear majority for either camp could mean weeks spent trying to cobble together coalitions, with possible new elections on the horizon if negotiations fail.
A stalemate could in the immediate term benefit Netanyahu, who would remain caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed.
Full results are expected by Oct. 29 evening or Oct. 30 morning.
Netanyahu, greeting cheering supporters at a Jerusalem convention center called for a “strong government of the right” and said the “Jewish and Zionist majority must unite.”
The 77-year-old prime minister, who has governed Israel on and off for nearly two decades, was unusually brief and did not directly claim victory.
U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on Oct. 28 that his endorsement of Netanyahu had helped “a lot.”
