What you
need to know about the most consequential election in Israel’s history
Benjamin
Netanyahu is seeking a new mandate in Israel’s first election since the 7
October 2023 Hamas attacks
Emma Graham-Harrison in Jerusalem
Mon 26 Oct
2026 12.17 GMT
On Tuesday Israel holds its first
election since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks, the deadliest day in the
country’s history, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people, the
majority of them civilians.
Since then
Israel has pursued a war of annihilation in Gaza, launched two inconclusive
wars with Iran, and intensified a campaign of state-backed ethnic cleansing in
the occupied West Bank.
Domestically
the coalition formed by Benjamin Netanyahu
has taken aim at democratic institutions, including the supreme court. Many
Israelis have described this election as the most consequential in their
country’s history.
Who are
the main players?
The prime
minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has led Israel for 19 out of the last 30 years,
most recently at the head of a far-right coalition. He is seeking a new mandate
with the endorsement of the US president, Donald Trump, and the fight is
personal as well as political. He is on trial for corruption; losing power may
mean a greater risk of jail time.
His main
rival is Gadi
Eisenkot, a former head of the Israeli military and relative political
newcomer, the son of Moroccan immigrants who rose to the heart of Israel’s
establishment from humble beginnings. His son and two nephews were killed
fighting in Gaza in 2024.
He lacks
Netanyahu’s charisma, but has embraced that as part of a campaign positioning
him as the opposite of Israel’s current leader, down to the name of his new
party – Yashar, or “Honesty”.
What are
the key issues for voters?
Israel’s
security is at the heart of the election, overshadowing even the soaring cost
of living. Opponents of the current government point to the catastrophe of the
7 October attacks, the erosion of democratic institutions, rise of religious
extremism and the cost of open-ended, multi-front wars.
They have
promised a state commission of inquiry into 7 October, and most have pledged to
end draft exemption for ultra-Orthodox men, a source of deep resentment among
families whose loved ones are serving or have been killed.
They are
also concerned about international isolation, amid broadening sanctions over
settlement expansion, and an accelerating brain
drain among the elite.
Netanyahu
has tried to shift blame for 7 October on to Israel’s security establishment,
and despite presiding over the deadliest day in Israel’s history, he claims to
be the only leader with the experience and international contacts to keep the
country safe.
He recently
posted an AI image of a nuclear bomb hitting Tel Aviv on social media, with the
claim “anyone who cares about their physical existence” should pause before
voting for the opposition.
His far-right
allies have called for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the occupied West
Bank, and expansion of settlements.
His
ultra-Orthodox partners want to preserve a decades-old exemption from
conscription and subsidies for religious study.
What are
the polls saying?
Most polls
show Netanyahu’s Likud and his current coalition parters losing their majority.
That fall in voter support has been fairly consistent for more than two years.
They also
show a clear anti-Netanyahu majority. However, those opposition seats are
divided between the bloc of Jewish Israeli parties, led by Eisenkot’s Yashar,
and parties representing Palestinian
citizens of Israel.
The Jewish
Israeli parties are unlikely to have a majority on their own, but have mostly
ruled out going into coalition with Palestinians.
Palestinian
politicians have indicated they might support a minority government of the
Jewish Israeli parties in order to unseat Netanyahu’s far-right coalition.
How does
the system work and when might we get results/a new government?
The Knesset
has 120 seats, with lawmakers voted in through a system of proportional
representation. No single party has ever claimed a majority of 61 seats, so
Israel has always been governed by coalitions.
When the
results are in, the president invites the party with the largest number of
seats to try to agree a governing coalition.
Exit polls
are released at 10pm Israeli time (8pm GMT), and the first indication of actual
voting counts usually emerges in the early hours of the morning.
Getting full
results could take much longer, with the outcome potentially hanging on the
electoral fortunes of two small parties, which need to win 3.25% of the overall
vote to take up seats in the Knesset. Polling puts both around this threshold.
If they cross it, they each get four seats, which would have a significant
impact on coalition building options.
The
far-right Amcha Yisrael is led by the former general Ofer Winter, who has
pledged to back Netanyahu for prime minister if he gets into the Knesset. The
Reservists is a rightwing Zionist party focused on ensuring universal
conscription whose leaders sit between the two blocs. They have ruled out
joining any government supported by either the ultra-Orthodox – key Netanyahu
allies – or Palestinian parties whose backing Eisenkot is likely to need.
If it goes
down to the wire, counting could take more than a day.
How
democratic is the vote – and who is being disenfranchised?
About 15
million people live in areas under Israeli control. Just over 7 million Jewish
Israelis and 1.7 million Palestinian citizens of Israel live within the
country’s pre-1967 borders, known as the “green line”, and have full voting
rights.
In the
occupied West Bank, more than 500,000 Israeli
settlers can vote. They live among 3.1 million Palestinians who are subject
to military rule and do not have the right to vote.
In occupied
East Jerusalem more than 230,000 Israelis with voting rights live among 350,000
Palestinians who cannot vote.
Two million
Palestinians in Gaza, who live under Israeli military
occupation, according to the international court of justice, also have no
vote.
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