Live: Palestinian gains block Netanyahu and opposition from forming government, exit polls show

The opposition “Change” bloc led by former Israeli military chief Gadi Eisenkot is projected to win more seats than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc, according to an exit poll by Israel’s Channel 11.

Exit polls also show strong gains for Palestinian-led parties in Tuesday’s election.

Eisenkot leads the Yashar party, while Netanyahu heads Likud.

Israel's election ended in an apparent deadlock on Tuesday, exit polls by major television networks showed, with neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his main rival Gadi Eisenkot on track for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.

Nearly 89 percent of eligible prisoners and detainees held in Israeli prisons cast their ballots in Tuesday’s election, the Israel Prison Service said.

Voting in prisons ended at 8pm local time, it added.

Israel’s Central Election Committee plans to announce the official results of Tuesday’s election by Wednesday evening, Israeli state-run radio reported.

Polling stations are due to close at 10pm local time, but the committee said they will remain open if voters are still queuing to cast their ballots.

Israeli news channels will broadcast exit poll projections once voting ends.

Voter turnout in Israel’s election reached 74.3 percent by 8pm local time on Tuesday, surpassing the total turnout of 70.6 percent in the 2022 election, according to the Central Elections Committee.

The committee said it was the highest turnout recorded at that hour since it began tracking voting by time of day.

More than 5.4 million people had cast their ballots by 8pm, around 655,000 more than in the entire 2022 election.

Palestinian Bedouin voters reported waiting more than four hours to cast their ballots in Shaqib al-Salam, a Bedouin town in the Southern District of Israel, with some leaving as hundreds queued outside a polling station, Haaretz reported.

Some travelled dozens of kilometres to vote.

Israel's Central Elections Committee on Tuesday rejected a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party to extend voting beyond 10pm local time.

"High nationwide turnout across all sectors of society reflects strong public engagement in the democratic process, and no need to extend voting hours was identified," a commission statement said.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has urged right-wing voters to cast their ballots, claiming that unprecedented turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel could help bring a “dangerous left-wing government” to power.

“Do not despair! It is still possible to win,” Smotrich said in a post on X.

Palestinian politicians have accused right-wing figures of incitement against Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 20 percent of the country’s population.

Israeli police have seized ballot boxes in the town of Arara in the Negev, Al Jazeera reported, citing Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am, also known as the United Arab List.

The network also said police are preventing the voting process from continuing in the electoral area.

Netanyahu is using the political group as a “scarecrow” to mobilise right-wing voters, Mansour Abbas, the leader of Ra’am, or the United Arab List, said.

Abbas wrote in a social media post that the United Arab List appeals to our people for their support and votes” and added that his party “will bring down Benjamin Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben Gvir in this election”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners made a last-ditch push on Tuesday to get their supporters to the polls, warning of a surging Arab voter turnout, a tactic Palestinian politicians denounced as racist and inflammatory.

Cars flying Netanyahu's Likud party flags drove through Jerusalem blaring the Islamic call to prayer and urging supporters to cast their ballots because "Arabs are voting", witnesses said.

"If we don't wake up now, we'll find ourselves with a government of Mansour Abbas and Ahmed Tibi," Netanyahu wrote in a post, referring to two leading Palestinian politicians in Israel.

Tibi, a candidate from an Arab party, said strong turnout among Israel's Arab minority would "pave the way for an alternative government and change the grave reality".

Sami Abu Shehadeh, leader of the Arab Balad party, wrote on X that long lines outside polling stations should bring "pride and joy to anyone who believed in democracy".

"We are receiving all these inciting messages from the petty racists, Ben Gvir, Netanyahu, and their partners. What are they afraid of? This is actually an excellent sight, it is good for democracy."

The party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's main election challenger said it "firmly opposes" a call from the premier's party to extend voting hours on Tuesday, calling it a pretext for a future challenge to the poll's legitimacy.

"No exceptional incident has occurred that would justify granting this request, which is intended to lay the groundwork for allegations challenging the integrity of the election, continuing the lies Netanyahu has been spreading since this morning," ex-army chief Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party said.

An Israeli voter has told Middle East Eye that current elections in Israel were existential.

Fatima Hassan Bakri, a 77-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel, said this was the first time she had "felt the weight of the moment as I cast my ballot, because these elections are different from any other."

"This vote is a vote for survival and for our very existence. A vote for our children who emigrate because there are no jobs. A vote against fear, terror and inequality," she said.

"I call on every woman to come out and vote with her children. We make up half of society, so we should make our voices heard."

Netanyahu's Likud party has submitted a request to extend the voting hours beyond 1opm.

Times of Israel said that the ultra-Orthodox Shas party had also requested an extension.

“The parties are trying to prevent a situation in which citizens waiting in line won’t be able to vote," they party said in a statement.

Getting rid of Netanyahu's "racist" government should be a priority for Israelis, an Israeli voter told Middle East Eye.

Kassim Titi, a Palestinian citizen of Israel from the Galilee, said that the Israeli prime minister and his far-right allies Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich had fomented severe hatred against Palestinians.

He said the "government is racist and led by Ben Gvir and Smotrich."

"The way they treat Arabs is not right. We want to live in peace, stability and security and we want equality between Jews and Arabs," he said.