Israel exit polls show no clear Knesset winner
Main TV exit polls in Israel after voting closed Tuesday show no majority for either side, The Guardian and the BBC report. Gadi Eisenkot's anti-Netanyahu group is put at 52 to 53 seats and Netanyahu's group at 50, both short of 61. Official counts can differ, and mostly military mail ballots run into Thursday.
Main TV exit polls in Israel after voting closed Tuesday show no clear winner for the Knesset, The Guardian and the BBC report. Polls closed at 10 p.m. Israel time after a high-turnout day. Channel 12's poll, carried by The Guardian, puts the Jewish-led anti-Netanyahu bloc at 52 seats and Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc at 50. Channel 13's poll puts the opposition bloc at 53 and Netanyahu's bloc at 50. Both fall short of the 61 seats needed to govern alone.
Likud is still projected as the largest single party. Channel 12 puts Likud at 24 seats and Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party at 22. Arab-led parties are projected at a record 17 to 18 seats. Neither main Jewish bloc can reach 61 without help from those parties or other deals, The Guardian reported.
Eisenkot said the early exit polls show a complete lack of confidence in Netanyahu and the government tied to the October 7 failures. He said that if the figures hold, he will move at once to replace the Netanyahu government. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said opposition cheers were premature and that Likud remains Israel's largest party. Yair Golan said voters had dismissed the Netanyahu government. Former prime minister Yair Lapid said the Netanyahu bloc had taken a crushing defeat.
Turnout was a big story of the day. The Central Elections Committee put national turnout at 74.3 percent by 8 p.m. Israel time, above 66.3 percent at the same hour in 2022, the BBC and The Guardian reported. This was the first election since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks. Early turnout set records, including in Arab-majority cities.
These figures are exit polls, not final results. The BBC noted that Israeli exit polls have been wrong before. Official counts start overnight. About 600,000 absentee ballots, nearly all from the military and about a tenth of the vote, will not be fully counted until Thursday, the BBC reported. Israel's president then meets party leaders and names the person he thinks has the best chance to form a coalition. That process can take weeks. If no government forms, another election can follow while Netanyahu stays on as caretaker.
What we know: Exit polls from major Israeli TV stations project no majority for either bloc, with Eisenkot's group slightly ahead and Likud still the largest single party.
What we don't: The final seat totals after official counting and absentee ballots, or who can put together 61 seats in talks.
Where outlets agree The Guardian and the BBC report that major TV exit polls project no majority for either bloc, with Eisenkot's group slightly ahead, Likud still the largest single party, and both short of 61 seats.
Where they differ The cited reports agree on the key facts so far.