The full reportThe full report

Summary

Israel voted on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, for all 120 seats in its parliament, the Knesset. With most votes counted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc was on track for 53 seats and the bloc of his main rival, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, for 48, with two Arab-led parties at a record 19. A government needs 61 seats, so neither bloc can govern on its own. Netanyahu's Likud party said Arab parties "stole" the election; the Central Elections Committee said it was examining the complaint. Absentee ballots are still being counted, and forming a government could take weeks.

What happened

With 85% of ballots counted, the BBC reported Netanyahu's Likud party and its allies on track for 53 seats, and Eisenkot's Yashar party and three other Jewish opposition parties for 48 (BBC). Ynet's count, at 85.6% of votes, had Likud as the largest party with 26 seats and Yashar next with 21. On Netanyahu's side were Shas, United Torah Judaism and Otzma Yehudit with 7 each and Religious Zionism–Zehut with 6. On Eisenkot's side were Beyachad, the alliance led by former prime minister Naftali Bennett, with 12, the Democrats with 8 and Yisrael Beytenu with 7. The Joint List had 12 and Ra'am 7 (Ynet). Netanyahu's bloc held 68 seats in the outgoing Knesset (CNN).

Nearly 5.7 million of about 7.3 million eligible voters cast ballots, a turnout of 77.7%, the highest since 1999, according to the Central Elections Committee (CNN). The two Arab-led parties are set to almost double their seats after a surge in turnout among Arab Israelis, who are about a fifth of the population (BBC).

Ynet reported 93% of polling stations reporting and 85.6% of votes counted (Ynet). The seat figures above may still change.

How a government gets formed in Israel

The Knesset's 120 seats are shared out among parties by their share of the national vote, and a party needs 3.25% of the vote to win any (BBC; Ynet). A prime minister needs the backing of at least 61 lawmakers: a coalition of parties, or a smaller coalition kept in office by parties that support it from outside (BBC).

The last ballots. Soldiers, diplomats, prisoners, hospital patients and staff and some other voters vote away from their home polling station. They put their ballot in an inner envelope sealed inside an outer one with their details; staff check the outer envelope so no one votes twice, then count the inner one (CNN). The committee estimated 430,000 to 480,000 of these ballots (BBC). In past elections they have changed the allocation of one or two seats, not always changing the balance between the blocs (Ynet).

The president. Once results are confirmed, President Isaac Herzog consults every party in the new Knesset and asks who it recommends for prime minister. He then gives the task to the candidate he thinks most likely to reach 61 seats, who is not necessarily the leader of the largest party. That candidate has 28 days, with a possible 14-day extension. If they fail, another candidate gets four weeks. If that fails too, the Knesset has a short window to put forward a candidate, and if it cannot, the country holds a new election (CNN). Herzog said he expected the official results next week (BBC).

In the meantime. Netanyahu stays on as caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed, including through a new election if there is one (BBC; Ynet).

How we got here

• 2022: Netanyahu and his allies win a majority, the only time they did so in five elections held between 2019 and 2022 (CNN).
• October 7, 2023: Hamas-led attacks on Israel kill about 1,200 people, and 251 are taken hostage. Wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran follow (BBC).
• October 2023–June 2024: Eisenkot, Israel's military chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, joins Netanyahu's emergency war cabinet with Benny Gantz. His youngest son, Gal, is killed fighting in Gaza in December 2023. Eisenkot and Gantz leave the war cabinet in June 2024, pointing to the absence of a clear post-war strategy (CNN).
• September 16, 2025: Eisenkot announces a new party, Yashar (The Jerusalem Post).
• July 17, 2026: The Knesset dissolves itself, setting the election for October 27 (Ynet).
• October 27, 2026: Election day. Police arrest three men from Bedouin communities in southern Israel on suspicion of offering money for votes for Ra'am; all three deny wrongdoing (Ynet). Exit polls show the two blocs close, with no majority for either (BBC).
• October 28, 2026: The count moves Netanyahu's bloc ahead, to 53 seats. Likud alleges that Arab parties stole the election, and the Central Elections Committee says it is examining the claims. Herzog urges parties to avoid another election (BBC).

What each side says

Netanyahu and his bloc. At Likud's headquarters in Jerusalem on election night, Netanyahu said his right-wing bloc had won a "great majority." "We must put in place a strong right-wing national government," he said. "It is forbidden, simply forbidden, to endanger Israel by forming a government that relies on anti-Zionist Arab parties" (BBC). He said his bloc had the support of a "decisive majority among the Zionist and Jewish public" (CNN). "The Zionist majority must come to its senses and unite. Only that way can we guarantee Israel's future," he said, and he thanked his "loyal partners" in the outgoing coalition (Ynet).

Eisenkot and his bloc. At Yashar's headquarters in Tel Aviv, Eisenkot said the public had "spoken in favour of change." "The coalition of failure has lost the people's trust," he said. "I will work with my partners to ensure that the people's decision is translated into a Zionist government" (BBC). He called on Netanyahu to "announce his retirement from political life today" and said Israelis were fed up with Netanyahu's "culture of lies" and "division and incitement" (BBC). On Wednesday he wrote that his focus was "bringing change to Israel and forming a Zionist government committed to military conscription" (CNN).

The fraud allegation and the responses. On election day, Netanyahu said in a video that "they are trying to steal the election from us," referring to the three arrests (The Media Line). On Wednesday, Likud issued a statement, which Netanyahu shared on X (Newsmax, via Yahoo News): "The elections in the State of Israel were stolen by Arab parties that support terrorism and the elimination of the Jewish state through serious criminal offenses of bribery, threats, violence, forgeries, and the use of prohibited software to mobilize voters." Likud said it was giving the police, the Shin Bet security service and the committee "hundreds of testimonies and pieces of evidence," citing envelopes of cash with Ra'am ballot slips, threats against polling-station staff, voting under double identities and mismatched envelope counts (The Telegraph, via Yahoo News). The Jerusalem Post reported that the allegations "have not been independently verified, and no evidence establishing that Arab parties systematically manipulated the election results has been made public" (The Jerusalem Post).

The Central Elections Committee said: "The committee has received Likud's submission and is examining it as part of this process," its routine review of complaints parties file about specific polling stations (The Jerusalem Post). On election day it had said it found no evidence of systematic interference with ballot slips (The Media Line). Ra'am called the arrests politically motivated, saying its activists were arrested at home before polls opened, and accused the authorities of trying to discourage Arab voting (Ynet). Talal al-Krenawi, mayor of the Bedouin city of Rahat, said: "These are lies and falsehoods. This is incitement against the Bedouins" (The Jerusalem Post). The police investigation of the three arrests is ongoing (Ynet).

What happens next

The double-envelope count was expected to finish on Thursday, October 29, and Herzog expects official results next week, after which his consultations with the parties begin (CNN; BBC). "We must do everything we can, certainly after yesterday, to avoid another round of elections. So, I expect everyone who comes here to come with an open mind," Herzog said (BBC).

The BBC describes four possible paths. Netanyahu and Eisenkot could form a unity government, which both ruled out during the campaign. Eisenkot's bloc could govern with the Arab-led parties inside the coalition or supporting it from outside; Ra'am has said it would join such a government and the Joint List that it would support one from outside, but all but one of the Jewish parties in his bloc have ruled this out. Netanyahu could try to bring right-wing parties from Eisenkot's bloc over to his side, though both campaigned to remove him. Or Israel holds another election (BBC). Ahmad Tibi, who leads the Joint List's group in the Knesset, told CNN the party would not seek cabinet posts and was "ready" to help, while Yair Golan of the Democrats urged his partners to work with the Arab parties (CNN).

How it was covered

15 of the 15 outlets on our panel covered it: 5 of 5 on the left, 5 of 5 in the center and 5 of 5 on the right (checked October 28, 2026). The Reel showed one headline per side: The New York Times, "Netanyahu Didn't Win Israel's Election. But He's Far From Out."; Reuters, "Netanyahu set to remain caretaker after inconclusive Israeli election"; and Fox News, "Netanyahu defies exit polls as vote shifts in his favor, but majority remains elusive." We found coverage from every outlet on the panel. Every outlet's headline, link and date is on the [story page](/stories/2026-10-28-israel-election/#coverage). [How we rate outlets and count coverage](/method/).

Sources

The [story page](/stories/2026-10-28-israel-election/#sources) lists the main sources; every other source is linked in the text above.

Corrections

None as of October 28, 2026. See the [corrections log](/stories/2026-10-28-israel-election/#corrections).