Israel election results highlights: Netanyahu alleges polls ‘stolen’ by Arab parties; Joint List denies claims

Israel election results LIVE: With 72.4 per cent votes counted, Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party is projected to get 27 seats based on its share. Meanwhile, Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar is slated to get 21 seats, Times of Israel reported.

The current leads are based on a partial vote count and will change as counting continues.

Israel election results LIVE: Yair Golan, the head of Israel's main left-wing party, called on Wednesday for his opposition allies to work with Arab parties to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Netanyahu lost. I know how to count to 120. 65 is more than 55. That's how Israeli democracy works. Period. The picture of reality must teach us one resounding lesson: We have no future here if we don't stop being afraid. And if we don't stop with the racism. We must no longer accept Netanyahu's racist division between Jewish votes and Arab votes,” he said in a post on X.

"We must no longer accept Netanyahu's racist division between Jewish votes and Arab votes," he said on X. "We have a responsibility. And we have an opportunity to form a government of change in partnership with Israel's Arab citizens."

Israel election results LIVE: MK Ofer Cassif of the Joint List said the projected number of seats won by the Arab-majority party as well as Ra’am mean that the bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot has a decision to make.

“More elections would be a gift to Netanyahu. The ball is in the hands of the change bloc,” Cassif told Army Radio.

Israel election results LIVE: After Israel's President invites a candidate to form government following declaration of election results, the candidate initially has 28 days to do so.

This duration can be extended by the President to 42 days. During this time, parties can negotiate, and the candidate tries to garner support from different quarters.

If the candidate cannot assemble a coalition with at least 61 seats, they can also try to form a minority government by relying on support from smaller parties, or negotiate a power-sharing arrangement with alternating prime ministers, Al Jazeera reported.

Israel election results LIVE: Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief, is now Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's key rival, trailing the latter by a narrow margin in the election.

With vote counting underway, Eisenkot's party is currently projected to win 21 seats, not far behind Netanyahu's Likud party, which is projected to secure 27 seats at present. The current leads are based on a partial vote count and will change as counting continues.

66-year-old Eisenkot has served four decades in uniform. Born in Tiberias to a family of Moroccan Jewish immigrants, Eisenkot grew up in Tiberias and Eilat. He enlisted in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in 1978, joining the Golani Brigade, and served for 41 years before retiring, news agency PTI reported.

He became the IDF's chief of general staff in February 2015 and held the position until January 2019. Eisenkot entered national politics in 2022. His political profile rose after the Hamas attack in October, 2023, when he joined the emergency war cabinet formed by Netanyahu as an observer. Eisenkot has pledged to establish a state commission of inquiry into the security failures surrounding the October 7 attack.

Israel election results LIVE: With 57.3% of ballot boxes counted, the Benjamin Netanyahu-led bloc is ahead with 55 seats, while the opposition bloc is traling at 49. The Arab parties are at 16 seats.

The current leads are based on a partial vote count and will change as counting continues.

Israel election results LIVE: Israeli military said the final voter turnout among IDF soldiers reached 79.9%. The IDF said this was an increase of 6.2% compared to the previous election in 2022, Times of Israel reported.

Conscripts, career soldiers, and reservists began voting a week ago at over 890 polling stations deployed to military bases across the country and beyond Israel’s borders, including at army posts in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and Syria. The ballots closed at 10 pm Tuesday (local time), when voting ended in the rest of the country.

Israel election results LIVE: US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that his endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in this week's elections helped the latter “a lot.”

“I think when the endorsement went out, it had helped him a lot,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, AFP reported.

Israel election results LIVE: More than 2.7 million ballots have been counted, according to data from Israel’s Central Elections Committee. With this, the lead held by Netanyahu's Likud party has fallen slightly from 21.7 to 20.8 percent of valid votes.

Eisenkot's Yashar is in second place with 17.06 percent of votes. Meanwhile, the Arab-led Joint List, which was in the third place, has been overtaken by Naftali Bennett’s Together alliance with 9.2 percent votes, Al Jazeera reported.

The current leads are based on a partial vote count and will change as counting continues.

Israel election results LIVE: With 53.7% of ballot boxes counted, the pro-Netanyahu bloc is projected to get 55 seats, while the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot might get 50.

Netanyahu's Likud party, according to the partial vote count, is slated to get 27 seats, while rival Eisenkot's Yashar is projected to secure 22 seats. The current leads are based on a partial vote count and will change as counting continues.

Israel election results LIVE: US President Donald Trump credited his endorsement for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's gains as vote counting is underway in Israel.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, "“When President Trump endorsed Bibi Netanyahu, the whole tide turned, and now, rather than a decisive defeat for a Great Prime Minister, it looks like a big come-from-behind stalemate, or even a WIN for Netanyahu. It all took place AFTER the Endorsement by President Trump, who only wants what is good for the Middle East, Israel, and the United States of America!”

Irving C. Schwartz."

Israel election results LIVE: With vote counting underway in Israel, there are four possible scenarios which can take place in the future.

First is the formation of a coalition government. With the exit polls predicting a potential deadlock, parties will immediately begin negotiations to try to reach a 61-seat majority. Israeli President Isaac Herzog will name a candidate who has the best chance to form a government. This does not necessarily mean the party with the most seats.

Second, if no bloc manages to reach 61 seats, a candidate could attempt to govern without a majority but rather through support on an ad hoc basis from other lawmakers. In this scenario, lawmakers from the Arab Israeli parties will play a role.

Third is the prospect of a national unity government. While this may seem unrealistic given Israel's polarised political environment, it is still a possibility mused upon by commentators.

Fourth is the holding of new elections if no candidate manages to form a government.

(With AFP inputs)

Israel election results LIVE: With 41.9% of ballot boxes counted as of 5.58 am (local time), the pro-Netanyahu block is currently in the lead with 57 seats, according to Israel's Central Elections Committee.

The opposition, meanwhile, is at 47 seats. The predominantly Arab Joint List and Ra’am factions together hold the other 16 seats, Times of Israel reported. The results are partial and will change as counting continues.

Israel elections 2026 LIVE updates: With 41.9 per cent votes counted, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party is still ahead of rival Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar.

Likud is projected to get 28 seats while Yashar might secure 21 seats, according to the partial vote count. The leads are based partial vote count and will change as counting continues.

Israel elections 2026 LIVE updates: Ra'am (United Arab List) chairman Mansour Abbas told Channel 12 late Tuesday night that the party was seeking to change the current Israeli government's policy “in almost every possible way.”

Abbas hoped the final results would let the opposition bloc and Ra'am reach 61 seats together. However, he said, “With the numbers we have now, there is no government.”

Israel elections 2026 LIVE updates: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party was slightly ahead of rival Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar after 35.6 per cent of Israeli votes were counted, as of 5.15 am (local time).

Netanyahu's party was placed at 29 seats while Eisenkot's party was at 20. The results are based on a partial vote count and will change as counting continues.

Israel elections 2026 LIVE updates: With 32.5% of ballot boxes counted as of 4.51 am (local time) in Israel, partial results published by the Central Elections Committee shows the gap between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's and his rival Gadi Eisenkot's blocs narrowing.

The pro-Netanyahu bloc is currently projected to get 59 seats, while the rival bloc is projected to secure 46. The results are based on a partial vote count and will change as counting continues.

Israel elections 2026 LIVE updates: According to US sources cited by The Jerusalem Post, President Donald Trump would want the Israeli elections to yield a coalition that does not include current finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and current national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Trump believes that settler violence undermines his vision for the region, sources added.

Israel elections 2026 LIVE updates: B'Yachad party leader Naftali Bennett on Tuesday claimed Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would lose the elections.

“Netanyahu has lost, and the October 7 government is going home!” Bennett, a former Israeli PM, claimed, according to The Jerusalem Post. He added that leaders of the bloc seeking to replace Netanyahu were continuing talks and coordinating efforts to form a new government. "Now, let's get to work,” Bennett said. "We have a country to fix!”

Israel elections 2026 LIVE updates: Israel's ultra-Orthodox parties have not ruled out cooperating with Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot, N12 reported on Wednesday morning.

“If Eisenkot has any sense, he will form a government and not fill the [ministerial positions] that are important to us,” N12 cited a source in Shas as saying. “If there is a reasonable conscription law, perhaps we will join later,” the source added.

Israel elections 2026 LIVE updates: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is leading with approximately 27% of the vote after the first 100,000 ballots were counted, Israel's Central Election Committee shared at about 2:30 am on Wednesday.

Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar held about 17% of the vote, while Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad sat at nearly 9%.

Israel elections 2026 LIVE updates: Arab Israelis should not celebrate the results of the election exit polls, Religious Zionist Party chairman Bezalel Smotrich said early Wednesday morning, according to The Jerusalem Post.

He claimed Arab parties were celebrating because "they think they will succeed in stopping the revolution in Judea and Samaria." “We will not allow you to stop (it),” he said. The RZP is a far-right religious-nationalist party in Israel.

Israel elections 2026 LIVE updates: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following the publication of exit polls, said it would be “forbidden” to establish a coalition government which would include Arab parties.

“It is simply forbidden that we endanger Israel and establish a government that leans on Arab parties that are anti-Zionist,” The Jerusalem Post cited Netanyahu as saying. He said the Arab parties supported Hamas and called Israeli soldiers “murderers and war criminals."

Israel elections 2026 LIVE updates: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the right-wing bloc will win a “decisive majority” among the “Zionist and Jewish public.”

“The right-wing bloc has a clear, decisive majority among the Zionist public, among the Jewish public and all those who support the state,” Times of Israel cited Netanyahu as saying.

Israel elections 2026 LIVE updates: With over a quarter of the votes counted, the parties which are currently below the 3.25% threshold needed to enter Knesset include Ra’am (3.2%), Reservists (2.9%), People of Israel (1.8%), Charedi Public (0.2%), Times of Israel reported.