Israel election result shows no overall majority as vote count complete

Key points

• Netanyahu's bloc won 53 Knesset seats and the opposition bloc 48, both short of a 61-seat majority.
• Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot met Naftali Bennett and Yair Golan to discuss forming a government quickly.
• The Central Elections Committee will certify the final results by Wednesday.

Vote counting in Israel's elections is complete, and neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc nor the opposition has won a majority in the 120-member Knesset, Israeli media reported. With more than 99 percent of Tuesday's ballots counted, Netanyahu's bloc held 53 seats and the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot held 48, according to Haaretz. Arab list parties held a combined 19 seats. A parliamentary majority requires 61 seats.

The final results are to be certified and announced by Wednesday and remain subject to change until then. Tuesday's vote was the first since the October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel and the start of Israel's war on Gaza, and was widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's premiership.

Opposition coalition talks

On Thursday, Eisenkot, who heads the Yashar party, met former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who leads the Together party, to discuss forming a new government "as quickly as possible", according to a statement reported by Ynet News. Eisenkot also met Democrats party chairman Yair Golan, the only member of the opposition alliance to support a coalition with parties led by Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Golan met separately with Mansour Abbas, who leads the United Arab list, or Ra'am, projected to win seven of the 19 Arab party seats. Al Jazeera correspondent Nour Odeh said Eisenkot faces "an uphill battle" because he has pledged not to partner with the Palestinian Israeli parties, yet no bloc can govern without Arab-led party support.

This is a time for action. Our responsibility is not to miss the opportunity for change and the salvation of Israel

— Yair Golan

Interference claims and next steps

Netanyahu's Likud party has repeated unsubstantiated allegations that Arab-led parties "stolen" the election, potentially with foreign help. Central Elections Committee head Noam Sohlberg said "serious suspicions" of foreign interference had been brought to him in a letter to the Shin Bet, which he asked to investigate, saying he could not verify the claims. Eisenkot accused Netanyahu of trying to delegitimise the results.

Analyst Xavier Abu Eid told Al Jazeera that replacing the Knesset speaker, an ally of Netanyahu, could open a path for the opposition to pass legislation. Odeh said negotiations between political groups would follow certification of the results by Wednesday.