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Politics · Middle East

Netanyahu and Eisenkot both claim a mandate as vote count continues

Exit polls and early ballot counts showed neither Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc nor Gadi Eisenkot’s bloc reaching the 61 Knesset seats needed for a majority. With just under a third of ballots counted, Likud had 22.02% of the vote and Eisenkot’s Yashar party had 15.46%, according to Israel’s Central Elections Committee.

AI-assisted synthesis · Based on 3 independent reports from 5 outlets · Article text read from 1 of 3 reportsHow it's made

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5 outlets2 regionsLatest reporting 3 min read
Coverage: Center OnlyL 0 · C 5 · R 0
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Photo: Avi Ohayon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

What happened

Key facts

  • Netanyahu and a rival each claimed a mandate after Israel’s election (per The Hindu, RTÉ, The Straits Times).
  • Exit polls released after polls closed on Tuesday night and revised overnight showed neither Netanyahu’s political bloc nor Gadi Eisenkot’s bloc securing the 61 Knesset seats needed for a majority (per NDTV).
  • Gadi Eisenkot is a former military chief and leads the Yashar party (per NDTV).
  • With just under a third of ballots counted early on Wednesday morning, Israel’s Central Elections Committee reported Likud had 22.02% of the vote and Yashar had 15.46% (per NDTV).
  • Abbas told Channel 12 that people from both the change bloc and the pro-Netanyahu alliance had contacted him (per NDTV).
  • The election took place amid deep divisions over Netanyahu’s leadership and the effects of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and subsequent wars in the Middle East (per NDTV).

The brief

Exit polls and the early count left neither Benjamin Netanyahu’s political bloc nor that of his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, with a clear path to the 61 seats required for a Knesset majority. The Hindu, RTÉ, The Straits Times and Reuters headlines say Netanyahu and his rival each claimed a mandate; Reuters identifies Eisenkot as the other claimant.

The reported result remained incomplete as ballot counting continued. The exit polls came from major Israeli television stations after voting ended on Tuesday night and were revised overnight. They indicated that neither bloc had reached the majority threshold.

The polls also suggested that Arab-led parties had won the remaining 19 seats, making their representation a significant feature of the emerging parliamentary picture. Early Wednesday morning, with just under one-third of ballots counted, Israel’s Central Elections Committee reported 22.02% of the vote for Likud, Netanyahu’s party, and 15.46% for Eisenkot’s Yashar party.

Eisenkot is a former military chief. These partial vote shares were not a final seat allocation, and the account described the election outcome as inconclusive. Abbas told Channel 12 that political figures from both camps had approached him. “Everyone is speaking with us, not just from the ‘change bloc’,” he said, according to NDTV’s report of the interview.

He added that people from the pro-Netanyahu alliance had also initiated contact, indicating that outreach was not confined to one political grouping. The final tally was expected within the next 48 hours, but an official result was considered unlikely before Thursday.

The count and the formal result therefore remained the immediate steps in determining how the competing claims would translate into parliamentary seats. The reported exit-poll figures and partial vote totals did not establish which bloc would assemble a governing majority.

NDTV described the country as deeply divided over Netanyahu’s leadership and cited the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the wars that followed as part of the backdrop to the election. The account did not provide further detail on those conflicts; its focus was the inconclusive vote, the early party totals and the political contacts underway as counting continued.

Why it matters

  • The 61-seat threshold is the concrete measure separating a parliamentary majority from the inconclusive result shown by exit polls.
  • Arab-led parties were projected by exit polls to hold the remaining 19 seats, making their representation part of the emerging seat picture.
  • Abbas said contacts came from both the change bloc and the pro-Netanyahu alliance, placing him at the center of outreach described during the count.

What to watch next

  • Whether the final tally, expected within the next 48 hours, changes the picture shown by the partial count.
  • Whether an official result is announced before or after Thursday.
  • Whether contacts with Abbas from the change bloc and pro-Netanyahu alliance continue as the count proceeds.

How it's being covered

Coverage analysisShow details
5 source articles · 5 unique outlets · 3 distinct reports
Outlet political mix: Center Only· 5 Center
Where the outlets are based: Asia 60% · Europe 20% · Other 20%
Outlet political mix
Center Only
Left
Center
Right
0 outlets
5 outlets
0 outlets
The marker shows coverage balance: each unique outlet counts once.
Geography
Where the outlets covering this story are based.
5 unique outletsDominant coverage: Asia
Coverage imbalance
  • Coverage is currently concentrated among Center-rated outlets (5 of 5 rated sources); comparatively few Left or Right-rated outlets have published on the event.
How we measure coverage

One source is from a wire service (AP, Reuters, AFP or Bloomberg), whose reporting other outlets often republish.

How outlets' accounts compare

Updat3 does not yet have enough full reports to compare how outlets framed this story.

Timeline

Developments from this story's sources, dated background we compiled and fact-checked, and our earlier coverage. Each row says which.
  1. Israel held its first Knesset election, using proportional representation to allocate seats among party lists.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  2. Benjamin Netanyahu first became Israel’s prime minister.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  3. Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas took control of the territory in 2007.
    Background · from our historical context
  4. The electoral threshold was raised to 3.25 percent in 2014.
    Background · from our historical context
  5. In 2019, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced indictments against Netanyahu in three cases, and Netanyahu denied wrongdoing.
    Background · from our historical context
  6. Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz formed a unity government.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  7. Israel’s last national election before the current contest took place on November 1, 2022.
    Background · from our historical context
  8. Israel held a Knesset election in which Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc won a majority.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  9. Benjamin Netanyahu returned to the premiership on December 29, 2022, at the head of a coalition that included religious and far-right parties.
    Background · from our historical context
  10. The election took place amid deep divisions over Netanyahu’s leadership and the effects of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and subsequent wars in the Middle East.
    Reported in this story's sourcesSource:NDTV
  11. Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot left Israel’s emergency government.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  12. With just under a third of ballots counted early on Wednesday morning, Israel’s Central Elections Committee reported Likud had 22.02% of the vote and Yashar had 15.46%.
    Reported in this story's sourcesSource:NDTV
  13. Exit polls released after polls closed on Tuesday night and revised overnight showed neither Netanyahu’s political bloc nor Gadi Eisenkot’s bloc securing the 61 Knesset seats needed for a majority.
    Reported in this story's sourcesSource:NDTV

How we got here

Israel’s last national election before the current contest took place on November 1, 2022. Benjamin Netanyahu returned to the premiership on December 29, 2022, at the head of a coalition that included religious and far-right parties.

Gadi Eisenkot, who had served as Israel Defense Forces chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, entered parliamentary politics with the National Unity alliance in 2022. Netanyahu’s criminal trial, which began in May 2020 after his indictment on corruption charges in November 2019, had already made his leadership a source of sustained political division.

Original sources

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