Updated October 29, 2026 at 7:06 AM MDT
TEL AVIV, Israel — With 90% of the votes counted on Thursday, Israel's election has reached a deadlock — there is no clear winner, with neither side securing a majority in parliament.
The remaining votes to be counted are not expected to change the outcome, paving the way for weeks of negotiations to form a coalition government and for a prime minister to be chosen. Netanyahu's Likud party and his allies have so far won 53 seats and Eisenkot's political bloc has secured 48 seats in parliament.
The winning party needs a coalition of 61 lawmakers in the 120-seat Israeli parliament, or Knesset, in order to form a government. The final results will depend on the math and negotiations among broader alliances.
Arab-led parties, representing Arab voters who make up about 20% of Israel's population, have gained about 19 seats, a historic showing in the Knesset. The socially conservative United Arab List, or Ra'am, and the left-wing Joint List could be kingmakers. But Arab leaders have been demonized in Israel.
Netanyahu's far right coalition has refused to partner with them. Before the election, Eisenkot ruled out bringing Arab parties into his government. But he has also left open some room for collaboration, with a set of conditions, including for parties to denounce "Hamas as a terrorist organization that must be destroyed".
On Wednesday, Netanyahu's Likud party claimed the elections were "stolen" by Arab parties, saying it was providing evidence to the police. Critics viewed the allegation as an attempt to prevent the opposition from partnering with Arab parties to unseat him.
According to election officials, Israeli voter turnout on Tuesday was at more than 77%, the highest in more than two decades. Tens of thousandsof expatriates flew in from abroad to cast their ballots in the first election since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack and the war in Gaza.
Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving prime minister, with almost two decades in office across multiple tenures, but Israelis are divided over his leadership.
The issues at stake
Many question Netanyahu's ability to keep them safe after the Hamas attack, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Nearly 1,200 people were killed when Hamas attacked army bases, residential communities and an outdoor music rave — and 251 people were taken hostage back to Gaza.
Israelis have been reeling from reports that the government had received repeated warnings from countries in the region that Hamas was planning a major assault on Israel.
What happened in return was an Israeli military onslaught that has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, and left most of Gaza destroyed. Today, Israel is fighting back against charges of genocide while Netanyahu faces an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes.
Israel's wars in Gaza and the region, and its policies in the occupied West Bank, have badly strained its relations with many international governments. Public support for Israel in the United States has plummeted, worrying many Israeli voters.
Still, many other Israelis are fed up with the world's rebuke over the Gaza war and more than 67 percent of Israelis in a July 2025 poll said they were not very troubled about the suffering of people in Gaza. Netanyahu's supporters have said the wars he has led across the region, from Gaza to Lebanon to Iran, have restored Israel's security.
At Netanyahu's election night party on Tuesday in Jerusalem, giant screens played Hollywood-style videos of soldiers marching, airstrikes blowing up buildings and other destruction. Some clips appeared to show massive explosions of villages in Lebanon, where Israeli destruction of civilian infrastructure has drawn condemnation from human rights groups as potential war crimes, which Netanyahu's government denies.
The videos also repeatedly showed President Trump shaking hands with and endorsing Netanyahu. The two leaders have discussed plans to potentially launch major attacks against Iran, which could take place after U.S. midterm elections. Trump urged Israeli voters to reelect Netanyahu to "finish the job that we started."
Supporters of his Likud party at the event struck a defiant tone. When asked if Israel went too far in the war in Gaza, 24-year-old Ori Hazan replied: "We will keep fighting them, and this is now the ideology, this is the policy. You fight us, we will kill you, OK? That's it."
Israeli analyst Danny Citrinowitz told NPR Eisenkot would likely face increased pressure to join Netanyahu in a unity government especially if Netanyahu decides to join the U.S. to resume the war on Iran.
"Netanyahu definitely has an incentive to go to war, he understands that returning to war against Iran while forming a government will serve his interest," said Citrinowitz, who used to head the Iran desk in Israeli military intelligence.
NPR reported last week that the U.S. and Israel could be preparing for a possible attack as early as next week after US midterm elections.
What comes next
With the race so close, election officials told NPR they expect to finish counting votes — including hundreds of thousands of ballots from Israeli soldiers — by Thursday afternoon.
President Isaac Herzog said he expects to be handed the official election results next week. Then he will "begin the process of the consultations here, hearing from each and every faction, asking questions, and holding discussions," he said.
Whichever candidate comes out on top is expected to get the first chance to try to form a governing coalition. The party will have six weeks to do that. Both blocs are expected to engage in horse-trading to try to form a government. This has always been the case as no party in Israel's parliamentary system has ever won outright.
Herzog said he hopes there won't have to be an election do-over if the process breaks down.
"We must do everything we can, certainly after yesterday, to avoid another round of elections. So I expect everyone who comes here to come with an open mind," he said.
Eisenkot's Yashar party includes figures from Israel's political center and moderate right. The opposition parties he would partner with range from the right and center to the liberal left. He has pledged not to join a government led by Netanyahu.
Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats party, which is part of Eisenkot's bloc, called on X for the bloc to form a coalition with the Arab parties.
"We have no future here if we don't stop being afraid. And if we don't stop with the racism," he said. Even though it would help the Eisenkot bloc win, since the 2023 attack on Israel there's been heightened mistrust of Arab political leaders.
Another possible scenario is if neither side is able to form a government, leaving Netanyahu as a caretaker prime minister, with a repeat election held next year.
Additional reporting by Kate Bartlett.
Copyright 2026 NPR
