Israel exit polls show deadlock as Netanyahu bloc falls short of majority and Eisenkot’s rivals lead 52–50

Israel’s election ended Tuesday night without a clear winner, with all three major exit polls projecting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc at 50 seats and the Jewish-led opposition bloc associated with Gadi Eisenkot at 52 — leaving both short of the 61 seats needed for a governing majority.

Channel 12 initially projected Netanyahu’s Likud as the largest individual party with 24 seats and Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar with 22. Kan gave Likud 25 and Yashar 21, while updated projections later converged around the same overall bloc result of 52 seats for Netanyahu’s opponents and 50 for his supporters.

Arab-led parties were projected to win a combined 18 seats, meaning they could become decisive in determining whether either side can assemble enough parliamentary support to form a government.

The exit polls therefore point to a loss of Netanyahu’s current parliamentary majority but do not give Eisenkot’s core bloc an independent majority of its own.

Eisenkot nevertheless hailed the projections as “a complete vote of no confidence in Netanyahu and the October 7 government” and said that, if confirmed, the results represented a victory for what he called Israel’s “responsible Zionist majority.”

He pledged to move immediately to replace Netanyahu’s government and form a new coalition.

The results remain projections, not the official count. Once final results are certified, President Isaac Herzog will consult the elected parties and assign the task of forming a government to the lawmaker he believes has the best chance of assembling sufficient support.

In Israel’s parliamentary system, the leader of the largest party or bloc is not automatically appointed prime minister.