Israelis surged to the polls at the fastest rate in 45 years on Tuesday, passing wartime judgment on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in what voters described as the most consequential election in their history.
In the first election since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks, voters are passionately engaged over the trauma of the country’s deadliest day, and the ensuing wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
Policies of Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition have been divisive at home and have deepened Israel’s international isolation, but he has defended his record as the only leader with the mettle to face Israel’s foes.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader with 19 years in office, is an unmatched political survivor, and his nationalist politics are increasingly entrenched. Israel’s fragmented system makes it difficult for an array of opponents to force out his coalition of right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties.
His main rival Gadi Eisenkot, a military ex-chief of staff and security hawk, aims to unseat him with the support of parties on the right and centre, as well as the rump of an increasingly marginalised left. Opinion polls show a close race, with neither leader facing an easy path to power.
Voters began casting ballots after polling stations opened at 7 am (0500 GMT). The polls close at 10 pm (2000 GMT).
The Central Elections Committee reported that 16.7 percent of eligible voters had already cast their ballots within the first three hours, the fastest early turnout rate since 1981.
“I think these elections are the most important of all the ones I’ve known,” said Ruth Epstein, an 81-year-old longtime left-wing voter in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, who voted for the opposition Democrats.
“I’m really scared about what will be here.”
Netanyahu supporter Louis Lipsky of Jerusalem said he was voting to keep the prime minister in power, crediting him with normalising relations with several Arab states under the Abraham Accords of 2020.
Netanyahu has campaigned on his wartime leadership and an endorsement from US President Donald Trump, his ally in war against Iran, who has said they should “finish the job”.
If neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot can form a governing coalition in the 120-seat parliament, Netanyahu could stay on as caretaker until another election is held. His opponents have managed to wrest him from the premiership only once since 2009, and that took four inconclusive elections in two years. He was back 18 months later.
For many of Netanyahu’s opponents, the election turns on accountability for the security failures of October 7, Israel’s deadliest day. Opposition groups have promised to hold a national inquiry, which Netanyahu’s government has resisted.
“I am convinced that by the end of today, we will see a change — a new spirit for the State of Israel — that will serve as a rectification for the past three years and for that terrible day,” Eisenkot said during a visit to kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel, targeted in the October 7 attacks.
He walked to the polls with Gadi Mozes, one of 251 people kidnapped by Hamas and taken to Gaza during the attack that killed 1,200 people.
Eisenkot says Israel’s response — a war which health authorities say killed more than 74,000 Palestinians — was a failure because Hamas remains in charge. He repeated his commitment to dismantle or destroy Hamas’ military and governing power in Gaza within 18 months of forming a government.
In his first public commentary on election day, Netanyahu shared an article on X about an incident in which police said three people were arrested over an election bribery attempt.
“Right-wing voters, dear Likud voters, in the face of attempts to undermine the integrity of the elections, we must go out and vote en masse, vote Likud for the sake of our country,” he said.
Netanyahu’s critics have said the prime minister may try to cast doubt on the integrity of the voting process, which his office rejects.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of a far-right party in Netanyahu’s coalition, cast his vote in the Kiryat Arba settlement in the occupied West Bank early on Tuesday. He predicted Netanyahu would return as prime minister and his own party would serve as the right-wing anchor of the government.
Voters from Israel’s Arab minority — Israeli by citizenship but Palestinian by heritage — were voting in “unprecedented” numbers, Palestinian candidate Ahmed Tibi said.
Eisenkot has ruled out partnering with Arab parties, citing a lack of shared values, although some experts envision them propping up a minority government to ensure Netanyahu is removed from office.
“My expectation is that we will have only a slight majority either way. No landslide,” said Israeli political analyst Amotz Asa-El of the Shalom Hartman Institute.
Eisenkot joined Netanyahu’s war cabinet after the October 7 attacks but quit after eight months, criticising his leadership.
Israel flattened much of Gaza in the offensive launched after October 7, and now occupies around two-thirds of the enclave under a year-old US-brokered ceasefire.
Israel also dealt heavy blows to Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and traded strikes with Iran, culminating in a 12-day aerial campaign against Iranian nuclear sites in 2025 and this year’s joint US-Israeli war.
Like nearly all Jewish-led parties in Israel, Eisenkot opposes the two-state solution that underpinned decades of peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
But he has criticised Jewish settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which has surged since 2023 and strained Israel’s ties with Western states. And he opposes Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners.
