Israelis head to the polls on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, in a closely contested election that could decide whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains in power. The vote for all 120 seats in the Knesset comes after four years marked by war and deep political division, and final polls show the two main camps running neck and neck, neither projected to win the 61 seats needed to govern alone.
A referendum on Netanyahu
The election is widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister. His main challenger is former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, who leads the opposition's bid to unseat him. Eisenkot has called Netanyahu "unfit to remain in office," arguing that the prime minister "spreads hatred, fear and portrays his rivals as enemies of Israel," according to public broadcaster Kan. At the heart of the campaign are accountability for the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks, military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews, judicial reform and national security.
Netanyahu, by contrast, has framed the contest as a question of who can keep Israel safe, pointing to his record confronting Hamas and Iran. He has told supporters that the stakes involve "the continued existence of the Jewish state, and to guarantee that, you must vote for the person who will get the job done." About 7.3 million Israelis are eligible to vote, with 38 parties registered and around 11 expected to clear the 3.25 percent electoral threshold.
Trump weighs in, polls show a dead heat
Netanyahu retains a powerful ally in United States President Donald Trump, who endorsed him days before the vote, calling him "the man I want by my side" and urging Israelis to "finish the job that we started." The four latest election surveys, which closed on October 23, showed Eisenkot's Yashar party leading Netanyahu's Likud, but neither bloc close to an outright majority. Under Israel's party-list proportional representation system, seats are allocated in proportion to each list's share of the vote, making coalition negotiations decisive.
Netanyahu's coalition includes his own Likud party, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's pro-settler Religious Zionism party and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's far-right Jewish Power party. His rivals include an alliance led by former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, former defence minister Avigdor Lieberman and a four-party coalition led by Yair Golan with significant representation of Israel's Arab minority.
What happens next
Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 10 p.m. on Tuesday. If, as expected, no bloc wins 61 seats, days or weeks of coalition talks will follow, and the shape of the next government could reshape not only Israeli politics but the wider Middle East, where Israel remains embroiled in the Iran conflict and tensions on its northern border. Whatever the result, the vote closes a campaign that has laid bare how divided Israel remains over security, accountability and the future direction of the state.
Takeaway: Tuesday's vote is less a routine election than a verdict on Netanyahu's long rule, and with no clear majority in sight, the real battle may begin only after the ballots are counted.
Watch: YouTube coverage of the Israel election 2026 race between Netanyahu and Eisenkot
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Lightless Dawn (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: The Indian Express, The Tribune, Yeni Safak.