Netanyahu and Eisenkot deadlocked as Israel counts ballots

Counting continued Wednesday morning following Israel's parliamentary election, with exit polls pointing to a competitive contest between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing bloc and centrist challenger Gadi Eisenkot, former head of the Israel Defense Forces.

Voting ended at 10 p.m. local time Tuesday, with 77.7 percent of eligible voters participating, the strongest turnout in more than two decades. The Israel Central Elections Committee indicated that official results would arrive Thursday.

Early tallies suggested neither camp would reach the 61 seats required for control of the Knesset's 120 seats. Should no winner emerge, President Isaac Herzog will meet with party leaders to determine who has the strongest chance of assembling a governing majority, ordinarily the head of the largest faction. Netanyahu would serve as interim prime minister during coalition talks, a process that can take weeks.

Netanyahu, head of the Likud party, declared to backers that his party remained Israel's largest and called for forming a right-wing administration. He stated that any coalition including Arab parties would jeopardise the nation.

Eisenkot, leading the centrist Yashar party, told his supporters the election signalled the conclusion of Netanyahu's tenure. "The public decided in favor of change," he stated, characterising Netanyahu as "a transitional prime minister, without a mandate or trust."

Both campaigns centred on security, tensions with Iran, and Netanyahu's handling of the Gaza conflict. Netanyahu highlighted an opportunity alongside President Donald Trump "to remove the existential threat of Iran once and for all."

Exit polling indicated strong performance by Arab-Israeli parties. Should official results confirm this, both Netanyahu and Eisenkot could require their backing to achieve a parliamentary majority, despite each having previously rejected such arrangements.

From 2019 through 2022, Israeli voters returned to the ballot five times as successive coalitions collapsed. Netanyahu eventually broke that cycle by building what observers regard as the nation's most right-wing government, commanding 64 of 120 Knesset seats. Failure to construct a new coalition risks triggering fresh elections.