October 28, 2026
The camp of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued to advance in the legislative elections as vote counting continued, but it is still below the majority threshold required to form a government, which keeps the political scene dependent on anticipated negotiations and alliances that may determine the features of the next coalition.
The partial results issued by the Central Elections Commission on Wednesday morning, after counting 66.2% of the ballot boxes, indicated that Netanyahu’s camp won 56 seats, compared to 48 seats for the camp of Yashar Party leader Gadi Eisenkot, while the Arab parties won 16 seats.
This temporary distribution puts Netanyahu’s camp an additional 5 seats away from reaching the majority necessary to form the government in the 120-seat Knesset, which is limited to 61 seats.
In the same context, three parties stand below the electoral threshold of 3.25%. The Reserve Soldiers Party received 2.7%, the People of Israel Party received 1.6%, while the Haredi Republican Party scored 0.2%.
These numbers remain preliminary and are subject to change as the counting process continues, especially in light of the incomplete counting of the double envelope votes that include, in addition to other categories, military votes.
This stage is extremely sensitive, as any slight change in voting percentages, or the success of any of the stuck parties in crossing the decisive threshold, would redistribute seats and upset the existing balance of power between the camps.
Despite the superiority of Netanyahu’s camp, the current data prevent him from deciding the formation of the government alone, which links the final result to the counting of the remaining votes and to the extent of the blocs’ ability to engineer alliances that guarantee them a parliamentary majority.
These developments came in the wake of elections characterized by intense competition between the Netanyahu and Eisenkot camps, amid the emergence of Arab lists as a fundamental and influential figure in the political equation, and the continuing debate over the chances of forming a stable government coalition.
