Vote counting is complete in Israel’s elections with neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc nor the opposition winning a majority in parliament, Israeli media have said.
As the provisional results were being published on Thursday, opposition politicians met to explore options for a coalition.
With more than 99 percent of Tuesday’s ballots tallied, Netanyahu’s bloc held 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset while the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot secured 48 seats, Israeli outlet Haaretz reported. The Arab list parties, meanwhile, held a combined 19 seats, it added.
Both Netanyahu’s bloc and the opposition parties fell short of securing the 61 seats required for a parliamentary majority.
The final results of the Knesset elections will be certified and announced by Wednesday. Until that date, the results are subject to change.
Tuesday’s elections – the first since the October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel and the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza – were widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s premiership.
On Thursday, Eisenkot, who heads the Yashar party, met former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who leads the Together party, to discuss ways to form a new government “as quickly as possible”, according to a statement reported by Israel’s Ynet News outlet.
Eisenkot also met Democrats party chairman Yair Golan, the only member of the opposition alliance to support forming a coalition with parties led by Palestinian citizens of Israel, while all other political groups have rejected any such union.
Golan met separately with Mansour Abbas, who leads the United Arab list, or Ra’am, which is projected to win seven of the 19 Arab party seats.
“This is a time for action. Our responsibility is not to miss the opportunity for change and the salvation of Israel,” Golan said in a post on X after his meeting with Abbas.
Al Jazeera correspondent Nour Odeh noted that “Eisenkot has an uphill battle ahead of him.”
The former military leader-turned-politician has pledged “not to ally himself or get into a partnership with the Palestinian Israeli parties”, Odeh said, reporting from the occupied West Bank because Al Jazeera is banned from Israel.
But given the fact that no political bloc has a majority, the Eisenkot-led opposition bloc cannot form a governing coalition without the support of Arab-led parties, she added.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s Likud party has continued to amplify unsubstantiated allegations that Arab-led parties had “stolen” the election, potentially with foreign assistance – claims that have been rejected .
The head of the Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, said “serious suspicions” of foreign interference had been brought to him in a letter to the Shin Bet security agency. Sohlberg said he could not verify the claims, but given their serious nature, he asked the agency to investigate.
Eisenkot accused Netanyahu of working to delegitimise the election results with his allegations.
In a video posted on his X account, Eisenkot said: “The days of Netanyahu using state institutions against Israeli interests for his personal needs are over,” adding that no “spin” can change voters rejecting his government at the polls.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is not satisfied with the results, no matter how much he has been saying that he won,” political analyst Xavier Abu Eid told Al Jazeera.
He added that while it seems unlikely the opposition could take advantage by overcoming differences with the Arab-led groups, there could be an understanding to replace the current speaker of the Knesset, who is close to Netanyahu.
“If there is a new speaker in the Knesset, … Netanyahu loses an important ally,” Abu Eid said, adding that this might give an opening for the opposition to “actually start passing legislation” against him.
Odeh said the next steps would involve negotiations between political groups after the Central Elections Committee announces and certifies the election results by Wednesday.
