Israeli Elections Close With Historic 77.7% Turnout as Exit Polls Show Eisenkot Opposition Edging Netanyahu Bloc

JERUSALEM (FesNews Media) — Polling stations across Israel officially closed at 10:00 p.m. local time on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, marking the conclusion of the country’s first general election since the October 7, 2023 attacks and subsequent regional wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, with the Central Elections Committee reporting a historic 77.7% voter turnout—the highest recorded at poll closing since 1999, with 5,695,682 citizens casting their ballots.

Initial exit polls broadcast by Israel’s primary television networks—Channels 11, 12, and 13—projected a narrow lead for the opposition bloc headed by former military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, forecast to win between 52 and 53 seats, compared to approximately 50 seats for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing religious coalition in the 120-seat Knesset, while the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 projected 60 seats for the governing camp.

According to detailed seat projections from the main broadcasters, Netanyahu’s Likud party remains the largest single parliamentary faction with 24 to 25 seats (down from 32 in 2022), alongside coalition partners Shas (6–8 seats), Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit (6–7 seats), United Torah Judaism (6–7 seats), and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism (6 seats), whereas the opposition camp comprises Eisenkot’s Yashar party (21–23 seats), former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Beyachad (12–14 seats), Yair Golan’s The Democrats (9–10 seats), and Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu (7–9 seats).

Meanwhile, Arab political lists achieved a historic surge on the back of high Arab voter turnout, projected to capture a combined 17 to 18 seats—split between the Joint List led by Yousef Jabareen (10–11 seats) and Mansour Abbas’s United Arab List / Ra’am (7 seats)—up from 10 seats in 2022, positioning them as potential kingmakers after expressing willingness to back an opposition-led transition from outside the cabinet.

Coalition Deadlock, 600,000 Double-Envelope Ballots, and Sharp Political Reactions

With neither bloc securing the 61-seat parliamentary majority required to form a government outright, analysts warn of protracted coalition negotiations that could leave Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm of a caretaker government for weeks or months, particularly as approximately 600,000 absentee and military “double-envelope” ballots—representing nearly 10% of the total vote—will not be fully tallied before Thursday ahead of the official results certification on November 4 and formal consultations by President Isaac Herzog.

Reacting to the exit polls in Tel Aviv alongside ally Naftali Bennett, opposition leader Yair Lapid declared that “Netanyahu and his government collapsed today in a complete defeat,” calling for a state commission of inquiry and universal military conscription, while Gadi Eisenkot stated the results reflect “total distrust in Netanyahu,” prompting Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to dismiss the opposition’s celebrations as “premature” at the end of a tense election day marked by the arrest of a knife-wielding suspect who threatened the leader of The Democrats and the Central Elections Committee’s rejection of a Likud request to extend voting hours.