The Latest: No clear winner in Israeli election, exit polls suggest, with Netanyahu’s fate uncertain

Israel's election ended Tuesday with no clear winner, according to exit polls released by the country's major TV stations. The polls suggest that neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political bloc nor that of his main rival, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, won the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. The likely result is weeks of jockeying before anyone is declared the leader.

The vote was widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's leadership. It was the first national election since Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the wars that have since shaken the Middle East. Israelis vote for parties, not for a prime minister directly, and the parties then form alliances to build a majority coalition. No single party has ever won 61 seats on its own, so the arithmetic of coalition-building decides the outcome.

Turnout was high. Israel's Central Elections Committee reported more than 75 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots when polls closed at 10 p.m. local time. That is among the highest figures in recent elections. The commission said it had counted just over 2.6 million ballots in its first published results, with clearer numbers expected through the night and in the coming hours.

The mood at the two main campaign events diverged. At Eisenkot's gathering, supporters watched the exit polls on a large screen, jumped and cheered, and waved flags as they chanted his name. Eisenkot, who leads an anti-Netanyahu bloc, was welcomed warmly by a packed crowd. He told supporters he was ready to form a government. Earlier, he had called for national unity and said that if he became prime minister he would serve all Israelis. His campaign had also centered on ending exemptions from military service for ultra-Orthodox Israelis.

At Netanyahu's Likud headquarters, the atmosphere was uncertain. The initial results trickled in, and few in the room had watched the news with confidence. A Likud minister said he was cautiously optimistic, and another party figure said the coalition would be strong. Yohanan Plesner of the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based think tank, said the polls pointed to a significant defeat for Netanyahu's current coalition. He noted that the Eisenkot-led bloc also appeared to fall short of a majority. An ally of Eisenkot cautioned against reading too much into exit polls, since soldiers' and absentee ballots still had to be counted and could change the picture.

The far right had a rough night. Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party did worse than expected in the exit polls. Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, reminded supporters of what he had achieved, including approving death penalty conditions for Palestinian prisoners. Ben-Gvir also denounced Eisenkot, who had suggested he would work with other parties, and warned supporters against a government that would include Arab parties.

The Arab-led Ra'am party, led by Mansour Abbas, drew an enthusiastic response. Its supporters celebrated the early results, and Abbas appeared to leave open the possibility of a role in a government. The party had also put a Jewish law enforcement official on its list, a move that drew applause from its supporters.

With neither side near 61, attention turns to President Isaac Herzog. He is expected to ask the candidate with the likeliest path to a majority to try to form a government, and negotiations among the parties could stretch on for weeks. Official results over the coming hours will show how far each bloc actually is from that threshold.