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Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suffered a “crushing defeat” in Tuesday’s election.
Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, meanwhile, said the results showed a “lack of confidence” in Netanyahu.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is projected to win 25 seats in Israel’s parliament, more than any other party, according to an exit poll by Channel 13.
Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party follows with 23 seats. The opposition bloc is projected to hold a narrow lead over Netanyahu’s bloc.
The poll projects the following distribution of the 120 seats in the Knesset:
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Likud: 25
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Yashar: 23
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Together: 14
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Joint List: 10
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Democrats: 9
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Yisrael Beiteinu: 7
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United Torah Judaism: 7
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Ra’am: 7
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Shas: 6
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Jewish Power: 6
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Religious Zionism: 6
Neither Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor the Zionist opposition parties have enough seats to form a government following a huge surge in voting from Palestinian citizens of Israel, an exit poll suggested on Tuesday.
After polls closed at 10pm local time, Channel 13 said Netanyahu’s bloc is projected to win 50 seats with the opposition set to take 53 – far short of a 61 seat majority.
The Joint List and Raam, two slates representing Palestinian citizens of Israel, are projected to pick up 17 seats, which would be a record number of Arab MPs in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.
This is a developing story…
Read more: Israeli exit polls show huge Palestinian gains block Netanyahu and Eisenkot from forming majority
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.
