2026 Israeli legislative election

Background

After the 36th government lost its majority, snap elections were called in 2022. They resulted in Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc gaining a majority, and a government was successfully negotiated between Likud, Otzma Yehudit, Noam, Religious Zionist Party, United Torah Judaism, and Shas. The coalition was sworn in on 29 December 2022.

In January 2023, the 37th government announced a package of proposed judicial reforms that would have significantly changed the balance of power between the judiciary and the executive and legislative branches. The proposals triggered one of the largest protest movements in Israeli history, with weekly demonstrations taking place across the country for several months. Following mass protests, a nationwide general strike, and growing opposition from business leaders, military reservists and civil society organizations, Netanyahu announced in March 2023 that the legislative process would be suspended to allow negotiations with the opposition.

Negotiations later broke down, and the coalition resumed advancing parts of the reform. In July 2023, the Knesset approved an amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary preventing courts from applying the "reasonableness" standard to decisions of the government and its ministers. On 1 January 2024, the Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, ruled by an 8–7 majority that the amendment was unconstitutional and struck it down.

Following the October 7 attacks, the opposition party National Unity joined the government to form an emergency national unity coalition, with Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot joining the newly formed war cabinet. While the emergency coalition provided short-term stability, Netanyahu's government simultaneously faced sustained public and political pressure to resign and call for early elections. The emergency coalition eventually fractured, with Gideon Sa'ar's New Hope faction splitting from National Unity and resigning from the government in March 2024 before rejoining in September and ultimately agreeing in 2025 to merge with Likud. The remaining National Unity alliance formally departed the government on 9 June 2024. Otzma Yehudit temporarily exited the coalition in January 2025 in protest of a Gaza ceasefire agreement, and rejoined in March following the agreement's collapse.

The coalition's stability was repeatedly tested by internal ideological fractures, most notably regarding the politically volatile issue of Haredi military conscription. The instability reached a critical phase in July 2025, when both factions of United Torah Judaism (Degel HaTorah and Agudat Yisrael) resigned from the government in protest over the stalled conscription legislation. Shortly after, Shas also withdrew its ministers from the government, further weakening the coalition. While these parties often returned to their posts or remained in the coalition to avoid toppling the government, the recurring threat of collapse became a constant feature of Netanyahu's premiership. These fractures persisted until May 2026, when legislative momentum for dissolution grew across the political spectrum. However, with the Knesset nearing the completion of its full four-year term, these efforts would have only moved the election date forward by a few weeks. Ultimately, the coalition managed these pressures.

Date and electoral schedule

The Knesset formally dissolved on 17 July 2026. By completing its full four-year term, the 25th Knesset became the first Israeli legislature to serve its full duration without early dissolution since 1988, and the 37th government became the first to complete a full term since the 1973 election.

The candidate list submission began on 7 September with the deadline the next day, 8 September, while the surplus-vote agreements deadline was 16 October.

Voting at diplomatic missions began on 15 October, with an eligible pool of 4,800 voters, and ended the following day, with a turnout of 86 per cent, 17 points higher than the previous election.

Election day in Israel was 27 October.

The official results will be confirmed on 4 November.

Electoral system

The 120 seats in the Knesset are elected by closed list proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency. The electoral threshold for the election is 3.25%.

Expatriate voting and eligibility dispute

Because Israeli law does not permit absentee voting at embassies for ordinary citizens, participation requires physical travel. Ahead of the vote, more than 33,000 expatriates registered with the nonpartisan Fly&Vote initiative, drawing threats of legal action from Prime Minister Netanyahu over concerns they would lean opposition. Separately, a High Court petition by some 100 expats, removed from voter registries under the Interior Ministry's "Code 51" non-resident designation, was unanimously dismissed on procedural grounds on 2 September 2026.

Surplus-vote agreements

Two parties can sign a surplus-vote agreement that allows them to compete for leftover seats as if they were running together on the same list. The Bader–Ofer (D'Hondt) method slightly favours larger lists, meaning that alliances are more likely to receive leftover seats than parties would be individually. If the alliance receives leftover seats, the Bader–Ofer calculation is applied again, to determine how the seats are divided among the two allied lists.

The following parties signed surplus vote-sharing agreements for the 2026 election:

Together and Yisrael Beiteinu

Yashar and The Democrats

Joint List and Ra'am

Likud and RZP–Zehut

Shas and United Torah Judaism

Brit Olam and Fixing the Electoral and Governing System

Otzma Yehudit party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir dismissed the idea in mid-October of signing an agreement with Amcha Yisrael head Ofer Winter.

Political parties

Factions before the election

The following table displays the composition of the 25th Knesset at its dissolution on 17 July 2026:

Retiring incumbents

The table below lists all members of the Knesset (MKs) who are not standing for re-election.

Submitted parties

38 parties submitted lists, with their electoral symbols also listed below.

Submitted parties that withdrew

The following parties withdrew from the election after the list submission date.

Blue and White stated its intention to withdraw from the ballot on 19 October 2026.

The Ahi party, headed by Haim Yosef Abergel, withdrew on 23 October, following a meeting between Abergel and former Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, as well as Almog Cohen, Minister Yoav Kisch and Lior Katzav, who arrived as Benjamin Netanyahu's representative.

Public expression of interest

The following parties, which did not have representation in the Knesset prior to the 2026 election, expressed interest but chose not to contest it:

A Whole and Strong Jewish Israel: The party, founded by far right activists Michael Ben-Ari and Baruch Marzel, was initially barred by the Registrar of Political Parties following a recommendation from the Shin Bet, though it was later allowed to run.

Amir Avivi, founder of The Security Zionists, was planning to establish a new, centre-right party. He abandoned his plans fearing that too many parties running would have made it difficult for the right wing to win the election.

Unity dropped out on 4 September 2026.

The Zionist Home – The Reservists alliance split on 5 September, with Hili Tropper joining Yashar, while Yoaz Hendel allied with the New Economic Party. Hendel and Tropper emphasized in a joint statement that they would continue working together, even if they are not part of the same party.

The leaders of Standing Together launched an "Arab-Jewish party" on 16 June 2026 called A Place for Us All. The party is distinct from the movement. It decided not to submit a list on 8 September.

Wajdi Sarhan, a former commander of the IDF, launched a new Druze party called "Brotherhood Alliance" on 4 May 2026. The party did not submit a list to run in the election.

Electoral negotiations and exploratory talks

Beginning in April 2026, Benny Gantz held negotiations with Yoaz Hendel from The Reservists over a merger, with some talks also including Yaron Zelekha from the New Economic Party. By June, they also included former Fire and Rescue Commissioner Dedi Simchi, which reportedly reached a stalemate in early August. Talks between Gantz and Hendel stalled over the possibility of a coalition with Haredi parties, which Hendel staunchly opposed, and talks collapsed by early July. Hendel partnered instead with Hili Tropper as "Foundations of Israel". Gantz later reportedly held talks with Ayelet Shaked for a potential alliance. Gilad Erdan of Unity also met with Tropper for negotiations, but the two differed in their willingness to coalition with The Democrats. By late August, Erdan also held later-confirmed talks with Gantz on an electoral alliance. In the final party list submission, two lists represented this "third bloc": Blue and White, and a joint list between Zelekha and Hendel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed an alliance in August between Otzma Yehudit and the Religious Zionist Party, which Otzma head Itamar Ben-Gvir strongly opposed. Polling by Otzma indicated that a merger would weaken that party, while Amcha Yisrael, a new party headed by Ofer Winter, would benefit. Netanyahu called for a meeting of the two parties, which Ben-Gvir dismissed. Likud, in response, accused Ben-Gvir of wanting to "burn tens of thousands of right-wing votes." The two parties had previously agreed to run together in the 2022 election, after Netanyahu brokered a similar agreement between the two, which resulted in the joint list winning 14 seats.

From late summer 2025 to mid-2026, key opposition leaders held bilateral and multi-party meetings to coordinate strategy against the government. In September 2025, Yisrael Beiteinu's Avigdor Lieberman, Yesh Atid's Yair Lapid, Yashar's Gadi Eisenkot, and The Democrats' Yair Golan established a "permanent forum" focused on developing a policy platform for a national constitution, universal military conscription, and preservation of the Jewish, democratic, and Zionist character of the state. Lieberman also issued policy guidelines for a post-Netanyahu coalition. Broader attempts at a unified multi-party alliance, particularly involving Naftali Bennett, Eisenkot, and Lapid, faced friction over leadership positioning. Ultimately, Bennett and Lapid reached an agreement to run on a Bennett-led joint electoral list named Together in April 2026. The five opposition leaders (Eisenkot, Bennett, Lapid, Golan and Lieberman) signed a document in late September 2026 in which they pledged "not to attack each other on the campaign trail" and to work together to increase turnout.

Leadership elections and primaries

Leadership elections have been held by some parties to determine party leadership ahead of the election. Primary elections are held by some parties in advance of the national election to determine the composition of their party list.

Balad

Balad held its party primary on 27 June 2026. Sami Abu Shehadeh was re-elected as party leader, while the rest of the list included Bechar Aouda, Maher Karkabi Sabah, Hassan Nasarsa and Orly Noy, board chairwoman at B'Tselem and the list's first Jewish candidate.

The Democrats

Following Labor's poor electoral performance in the 2022 election, in which it won the minimum seats needed for entry into the Knesset and Meretz failed to cross the electoral threshold, party chair Merav Michaeli announced in December 2023 that she planned to resign. Yair Golan won a landslide victory in Labor's May 2024 leadership primary election on a platform promising to unify the political left. Labor and Meretz agreed to merge in July 2024, forming a new political party called The Democrats, with Golan serving as the unified party leader. The new party approved the merger in May 2026. The Democrats held a digital primary on 20 July 2026, with 97,000 of its 112,000 registered members casting ballots, an 86 per cent turnout. Party leader Golan secured the top spot on the list, followed by serving MKs Naama Lazimi, Gilad Kariv, and Efrat Rayten.

Hadash

Hadash closed its primary nominations on 14 May; the parties committee, known as the National Council, was allowed to cast ballots. The party held its primary two days later; former MK Yousef Jabareen defeated Shukry Awouda for the position of chairman. Incumbent leader Ayman Odeh and MK Aida Touma-Suleiman did not stand for re-election. It was the first party to select its electoral slate before the election. The Hadash list included Jabareen, Jafar Farah, Ofer Cassif, Youssef Atauna and Nihaya Wishahy. Farah, who was placed fourth on the Joint List, withdrew from the race following sexual harassment claims and was replaced by Faten Ghattas.

Likud

Likud formalized an agreement in August 2025 for the New Hope party to merge into it ahead of the next election. The merger has not been approved by the Knesset House Committee as of July 2026.

Following multiple legal battles and postponements, the party's primary elections were rescheduled from 4 to 17 August 2026. The internal race has been marked by disputes over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's push to expand reserved slots, alongside a party court ruling that barred incumbent lawmakers and ministers from running in regional district spots.

On 17 August, the 2026 Likud primary was held with a 53% turnout for a total of 76,068 party members voting. Party members voted for their preferred candidates with reserved slots for specific regional districts and for party leader Benjamin Netanyahu. The top candidates in the resulting party list are Netanyahu, Eli Cohen and Amir Ohana.

Ra'am

The Ra'am party announced in late July 2026 that it would hold its first independent primary on 22 August. The party's list includes Mansour Abbas, Walid Taha, Waleed Alhwashla, Iman Khatib-Yasin (in the reserved woman's slot) and Yasser Hujirat.

Religious Zionist Party

The Religious Zionist Party re-elected party leader Bezalel Smotrich in September 2025. In July 2026, the party held primaries to determine its electoral slate for the upcoming election, with 130 members of the parties' Central Committee voting to select candidates. Smotrich retained his position at the head of the list, followed by incumbent lawmakers Orit Strook, Simcha Rothman, Zvi Sukkot, and Ohad Tal. The final list remains subject to adjustments, as Smotrich retains the authority to appoint two reserved seats, including an expected spot for Tzvika Mor.

The Reservists

Yoaz Hendel was elected head of the The Reservists party on 9 June. A week later, the party held their primaries.

Controversies

Role of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) was heavily incorporated into both campaign strategy and voter behavior during the 2026 election cycle. The Central Elections Committee (CEC) implemented new transparency guidelines in July 2026 that mandate the explicit labeling of all political ads and campaign materials produced or substantially modified by AI. Despite these rules, a tracking study carried out in the run-up to the election by the Open University of Israel revealed that over one-eighth (roughly 13%) of all social media posts pertaining to the election were AI-generated or manipulated, with Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party responsible for about one-third of the content that was flagged.

Additionally, the electorate was directly impacted by the technology. According to an Israel Internet Association public opinion survey, 25% of Israeli voters, or one in four, intended to use large language model chatbots such as ChatGPT or Gemini to help them choose which party to vote for. While security experts cautioned that the consulted chatbots frequently relied on static data, suffered from hallucinations, or subtly reinforced the users' preexisting political biases, the same study highlighted systemic vulnerabilities, noting that 71% of respondents reported encountering election-related disinformation online.

AI videos

Netanyahu posted an AI-generated ad to his social media that appeared to show Yashar head Gadi Eisenkot bypassing a person wearing a shirt that said "Israeli unity" to instead embrace Ra'am head Mansour Abbas; journalists Guy Peleg and Barak Seri maintained that the person with the shirt was meant to allude to Eisenkot's dead son, although Likud denied this.

The chair of the CEC, Noam Sohlberg, ordered the Religious Zionist Party on 26 July 2026 to remove an AI-generated campaign video, which appeared to show someone resembling Eisenkot meeting with Mansour Abbas and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, on the grounds that it could be "misleading to voters."

Later that month, Jonatan Urich, a campaign advisor for Netanyahu, removed an AI-generated video after Yashar threatened to file a lawsuit over it.

Religious Zionist Party head Bezalel Smotrich shared an AI video in mid-September that showed Supreme Court President Yitzhak Amit, Justice Daphne Barak-Erez, and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara being "dragged at a protest." President Isaac Herzog and others, including Eisenkot, Together leader Naftali Bennett and The Democrats head Yair Golan, strongly condemned the video.

Netanyahu has focused his platform on the Iranian regime's threat, portraying it as Israel's top priority and an existential turning point. Artificial intelligence (AI) content was also used more widely during the campaign to influence voters.

Netanyahu shared an AI-generated picture of a nuclear explosion over Tel Aviv on X on 25 October 2026. The post, which was accompanied by text warning of a "second Holocaust" from an unchecked Iranian regime, called domestic discussions such as military draft evasion a "smokescreen," saying that "nothing else will matter anymore." The image was strongly denounced by political rivals, including Yair Golan of The Democrats, who questioned Netanyahu's stability and accused him of using fear tactics.

Disqualifications of individuals and parties

The Democrats filed a petition on 14 September before the CEC to bar Otzma Yehudit. Otzma Yehudit filed a petition against the Democrats that same day. The panel voted on 24 September against disqualifying the Democrats by a vote of 14-2 and voted 19-10 against a petition to disqualify Otzma Yehudit. It also dismissed the disqualification of the Religious Zionist Party by a vote of 21-3. The decision to allow Otzma Yehudit to run, as well as petitions against Itamar Ben-Gvir and Tally Gotliv, was appealed to the Supreme Court of Israel on 29 September. The disqualification petitions against Otzma Yehudit, as well as Ben-Gvir and Gotliv, were rejected by the court on 4 October.

On 23 September, the CEC barred Ra'am and the Joint List, alongside its candidates Ofer Cassif and Sami Abu Shehadeh, from contesting the election. Adalah announced its intention to challenge this decision to the Supreme Court, with Joint List head Yousef Jabareen criticising the decision as discouraging Arab citizens "representing more than 1.25 million voters" from voting. Ra'am and the Joint List appealed their disqualifications to the Supreme Court on 29 September. The Supreme Court would have voted in favor of disqualifying Abu Shehadeh, but recommended that he submit his resignation to the CEC, which he did on 2 October. The Supreme Court overturned the disqualifications of Ra'am, the Joint List and Cassif the same day.

Shas campaign video

Shas released a campaign video in August, portraying a religious family on Shabbat, waiting for their son, who serves in the IDF, to arrive home for dinner. Notably, the party has supported legislation that would allow draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men. Yashar issued a formal complaint over the video, criticising the use of IDF imagery in the video. CEC head Solhberg called for the removal of the video. Shas did not remove the video at first, though it later removed the video the same day and criticised Sohlberg.

Yashar campaign in Cyprus

Yashar launched a billboard campaign in Cyprus, targeting Israelis who were vacationing abroad. Cypriot Member of the European Parliament Fidias Panayiotou was highly critical of the campaign. Several days later, an image showing one of the billboards being vandalised circulated, though it was later reported to be an AI-generated image.

Controversy surrounding a Likud campaign application

On 17 September 2026, the High Court of Justice issued a ruling in the run-up to the elections, prohibiting political parties from gathering or sending real-time voter turnout and identity data from polling places on the grounds of privacy violations. On 18 October 2026, a former Likud campaign technology official filed a sworn affidavit with the High Court, reigniting the controversy despite the judicial ban. The party's recently released campaign app, according to the whistleblower, had settings that could use a smartphone's microphone to passively stream audio from polling places, getting around the law by tracking voters' identities as election workers read their names aloud.

The High Court of Justice ruled 2–1 on 22 October to forbid observers and representatives of political parties from digitally counting voters and sending real-time numerical totals from polling places to party operations. The ruling reversed a previous order from the CEC's acting director-general that permitted numerical tracking as long as individual identities remained anonymous. The majority was composed of Justices Ruth Ronnen and Khaled Kabub, "with Justice David Mintz dissenting".

Ethnic discourse and controversies

Media personality and Likud supporter Yinon Magal sparked widespread controversy in the last weeks of the campaign after making comments that were widely denounced as anti-Mizrahi slurs. The remarks were compared to historical electoral flashpoints involving ethnic denigration, like Dudu Topaz's "Chakhchakhim Speech" during the 1981 election campaign, and Yair Garbuz's "Amulet Kissers' Speech" in 2015.

The dynamic, according to observers, was different from previous elections in that disgruntled Mizrahi voters were thought to be more likely to switch to explicitly Mizrahi or right-wing religious parties within the pro-Netanyahu bloc, like Shas or Otzma Yehudit, rather than defecting to centrist opposition slates led by individuals like Gadi Eisenkot. In the previous controversies the anti-Mizrahi slurs were from the left, and the backlash was more damaging to the left. The unusual feature of the 2026 controversy was the anti-Mizrahi comments coming from the centre-right.

Security concerns

Increased worries about political violence and intimidation surfaced during the election cycle. Yair Golan, the chairman of The Democrats, received numerous severe death threats in August and September 2026 on social media and in public places. Some of the calls encouraged physical violence, such as saying he should be shot or hanged.

The Democrats formally petitioned the High Court of Justice on 29 September 2026, requesting an order requiring Shin Bet security protection for Golan. The party argued that denying him a security detail led to an unfair and hazardous campaigning environment, particularly after threat protection was authorized for Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot. After reviewing the state's updated, non-Shin Bet security measures for opposition leaders during a closed-door hearing, Supreme Court President Yitzhak Amit suggested that the party withdraw the petition.

Eight days before the election, on 19 October 2026, a campaign billboard belonging to The Democrats was severely vandalized, raising additional concerns about incitement. The words "wanted dead or alive," along with accusations that Golan was "a vile murderer of Jews" and references to the Ku Klux Klan, were scrawled across his face. The Democrats' stance on diplomatic engagement with the Palestinians and their willingness to form a government coalition with Arab parties appeared to be targeted in the graffiti. Golan posted pictures of the vandalized sign and said that while the billboard could be targeted, "hope will defeat hatred" at the poll.

The same day, a car carrying Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, the fifth candidate on the right-wing Amcha Yisrael election list, was attacked in the town of Turmus Ayya, turning security threats into physical assaults in the West Bank. The car was targeted while Hassan-Nahoum was on a public diplomacy tour with the pro-settlement Regavim movement. While participants were told to duck, video footage from the scene showed a Palestinian tossing a rock that smashed right through the car's window, causing minor injuries to tour members. Ofer Winter, the leader of the party, heavily criticized the government after the attack, accusing it of concentrating on political targets while neglecting to combat terrorism or offer sufficient protection for election candidates.

In addition to threats directed at The Democrats leader Yair Golan, other well-known opposition figures were subjected to severe hostile rhetoric. As the election drew closer, Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of the Yashar party and former chief of staff of the IDF, received multiple death threats in public and online. On 29 September 2026, the Shin Bet formally decided not to give Eisenkot an official state security detail, citing a lack of specific concrete intelligence to support it. Instead, the agency authorized his private guards to carry weapons and provided intelligence monitoring, despite a professional advisory committee's recommendation for state protection.

Yisrael Beitenu filed an official complaint with the Knesset sergeant-at-arms on 21 October 2026, six days prior to the election, after announcing that chairman Avigdor Liberman had received several explicit death threats. Among the threats were texts that called him a "Nazi bastard who hates Judaism" and said, "Only when you get a bullet in your head will you shut your mouth." The incident came after Liberman received a message threatening his execution in September 2026, which prompted Yisrael Beitenu to file a police complaint.

Following threats and an attack on the campaign trail, security for former prime minister and Together party chairman Naftali Bennett was doubled on the same day. As he visited Likud strongholds to win over undecided voters, the Shin Bet increased his level of protection to that of a defense minister. A local resident was charged with assault after two glass salt shakers were thrown at Bennett during a campaign stop in the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, injuring two members of Bennett's staff. The increased threat environment was also attributed by security agencies to foiled plots by foreign agents connected to his previous actions against the Iranian regime.

Five days prior to the election, on 22 October 2026, President Isaac Herzog used his official speech at the state memorial service commemorating 31 years since the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to denounce severe rhetorical hostility in the campaign environment. Herzog explicitly denounced persistent threats of death made online against political party leaders, Knesset members, and elected officials. He also cautioned against the escalation of political violence, citing public roadside signs demanding the release of Yigal Amir, Rabin's killer, as a danger to democratic stability.

During a late-night campaign stop in Jerusalem on 22 October 2026, a glass bottle was hurled at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's motorcade close to the Mahane Yehuda Market. The incident happened in the midst of heightened tensions at the market, where the premier was confronted about domestic policies and security lapses by anti-government protestors and relatives of hostages held in Gaza. While the convoy proceeded unharmed, Israel Police and security personnel swiftly broke through the crowd barricades to look for the offender.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the National Security Minister, strongly condemned the attack and placed it in the context of the larger 2026 election climate. He called it a direct result of political "incitement against the Prime Minister" and warned that political rhetoric from the opposition could turn into deadly physical violence. The political opposition, on the other hand, concentrated their criticism on the unstable atmosphere that followed. MK Gilad Kariv of the Democrats vehemently denounced the retaliatory physical attacks that Likud loyalists committed against protesting hostage families at the scene, accusing the government of deserting its people while inciting a violent campaign environment.

Turnout appeals from right-wing leaders

Right-wing leaders in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political bloc started focused consolidation campaigns to mobilize their supporters in response to the CEC's high early voter turnout reports. Bezalel Smotrich, the minister of finance, claimed that Arab and left-wing groups were disproportionately responsible for the high initial participation rates. However, an independent fact-checker countered that there were no demographic or regional breakdowns in the early official statistics. Smotrich publicly urged right-wing voters to abandon smaller ideologically aligned parties near the 3.25% electoral threshold to avoid wasting votes. Political analysts pointed out that this tactic specifically targeted Ofer Winter's Amcha Israel party. Likud's rhetoric from earlier election cycles was frequently compared to the messaging in the media.

Netanyahu warned his supporters in a video speech later on election day that many Arabs in the southern region were "racing to the ballots." He specifically charged political rivals with "trying to steal the election from us," citing an overnight police investigation that resulted in the detention of three Ra'am operatives in Bedouin communities on suspicion of bribing voters. A media outlet pointed out that the Prime Minister's specific demographic claims were not supported by current official data, despite his assertion that Arab voter turnout in the Negev greatly exceeded Jewish turnout. Senior Likud minister Miri Regev later repeated Netanyahu's remarks, weaponizing the high overall turnout metrics as leverage to claim that coordinated opposition mobilization was actively undermining a right-wing victory.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security, went to the entrance of the Arab city of Kafr Qasim and posted a video appeal on social media. Ben-Gvir pointed to the town and called the Arab sector's participation metrics "crazy" and "unprecedented," warning his supporters that winning required matching this momentum to keep the nation "Jewish and Zionist." He clearly presented the contest as a direct contest for political representation against Ahmad Tibi of Hadash-Ta'al and Mansour Abbas of Ra'am, two well-known Arab lawmakers.

Vandalism and violence

On election day, there were multiple serious instances of vandalism, voter intimidation, and physical violence directed at political leaders and campaign staff. Israel Police detained an unidentified suspect in Tel Aviv following what appeared to be an attempt to stab Yair Golan, the leader of the Democratic Party, outside a polling station. Golan was unharmed in the attack, which the party denounced as a direct result of systemic political incitement. According to party officials, the attacker approached Golan with a sharp object before being stopped by security guards and onlookers.

Outside a polling place in Netanya, Ruby Chen, the father of deceased dual U.S.-Israeli soldier Staff Sgt. Itay Chen, whose body was held captive in Gaza, was verbally abused and called a "traitor" by a local. At the time of the altercation, Chen was standing outside the site with a picture of his slain son.

While trying to stop a person from destroying campaign materials in Tiberias, an activist for Naftali Bennett's Together party was physically attacked. Together, Yisrael Beiteinu, and Yashar banners were being torn down by a man, who then shoved and pushed the female activist, according to video footage of the incident. The party later filed a formal complaint with the police.

Separately, the Charedi Public party reported that its field workers in Bnei Brak, Beit Shemesh, and Betar Illit were violently attacked at information booths close to polling stations. According to reports, a protester in Beit Shemesh destroyed campaign materials and upended an entire information table, which led to additional police intervention regarding voter intimidation.

An attacker from the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, struck two Democrats campaign activists in the face at a polling station booth in Holon. After the group tried to obstruct the attacker's path to the booth, video footage from the scene showed the attacker knocking one of the activists unconscious.

Yair Golan, the chairman of the Democrats, postponed his scheduled election-day tour in order to visit Holon and assist the injured victims after the attack. In a statement denouncing the violence, the Democrats claimed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political incitement had "fully trickled down to the grassroots."

Yisrael Beytenu, the secular nationalist party, reported that people wearing Otzma Yehudit-related shirts attacked its campaign activists in Netanya. Before leaving the area, the attackers destroyed the party's local campaign stand, scattered its promotional materials, and replaced them with Otzma Yehudit fliers, according to a statement released by Yisrael Beytenu. The party declared that its activists planned to file a formal police complaint, strongly denounced the violence, and demanded prompt police action to identify the attackers.

Voter suppression concerns

When Likud and Religious Zionism jointly announced plans to send about 2,000 political activists to polling stations in Arab communities for the election in October 2026, a significant controversy erupted. The parties used a "special mapping" of unsubstantiated fraud risks as justification for the operation, which sparked rumors that Likud was setting up unofficial monitoring teams to provide real-time reports from outside Arab precincts. According to media reports, Likud was preparing a significant number of pre-planned complaints in anticipation of losing the election, thereby setting the stage for a public "stolen election" accusation. The premise of these campaigns was rejected by Dean Livne, Director-General of the CEC, who stated that "there is no widespread fraud in Israel" and that the safeguards in place were adequate.

Arab political figures and civil rights groups sharply denounced the announcement, calling it a voter suppression campaign meant to scare Arab citizens. Critics argued that the activists' presence decreased voter turnout because they lacked official regulatory authority within the stations. Regulations permitting licensed gun owners to bring firearms into polling places raised concerns, so the Joint List and Adalah petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court for a weapons ban. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition on 25 October, accepting the state's argument that professional police security assessments could not be overturned on an operational basis. Adalah criticized the decision, saying that it permitted right-wing activists to operate as "armed militias" in minority communities.

Additionally, local concerns about voter intimidation were made worse by the presence of Israel Police officers inside polling places in a number of Negev Bedouin towns.

Delays in Arab neighborhoods

Numerous Arab and Bedouin communities in the Galilee and southern regions reported widespread systemic delays, lengthy lines, and abnormally slow identification procedures on election day. Arab legal aid organization Adalah suggested that the practices were a planned effort to reduce Arab voter turnout. The CEC Chairman, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, received an urgent appeal from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) asking for prompt action and the sending of inspectors to towns like Rahat, Tel Sheva, Laqiya, Segev Shalom, and Kafr Qara.

Transparency concerns

Disinformation and spoofing incidents

Following a coordinated spoofing campaign, the centrist Yashar party declared on 26 October 2026, the eve of the election, that it had petitioned the CEC and filed a formal police complaint. Fraudulent SMS texts and voice recordings that mimicked official party communications were disseminated by unidentified actors. In order to spread false information, the phony messages used Yashar's name and its official mailing list unsubscribe number. They also sent texts to people in the Galilee region, falsely urging them not to vote for opposition ally Naftali Bennett. Yashar leadership responded by alerting the public to an increase in "fake news" meant to sway voters and asking the CEC's cyber department to begin an immediate investigation.

The CEC received an urgent appeal from Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party on 26 October 2026, the eve of the election, alleging a coordinated foreign election interference operation via WhatsApp. Thousands of Russian-language text messages that originated from phone numbers with Swedish and Indian country codes were widely distributed, according to the party.

The messages urged recipients to reroute their support, falsely claiming that Yisrael Beiteinu would fall short of the 3.25% electoral threshold. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's Together joined Yisrael Beiteinu's petition to CEC Chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg after some of the automated messages pretended to be from the party. In addition to requesting that the Shin Bet and domestic law enforcement launch an investigation into possible state-sponsored foreign actors, the joint appeal sought an immediate injunction to stop the distribution vector. The incident took place amid broader cybersecurity alerts; earlier that day, Ofer Winter's Amcha Israel party revealed that senior campaign officials had also been locked out of WhatsApp due to targeted cyberattacks from foreign numbers.

Restrictions on foreign press

Five foreign journalists trying to cover the election had their entry and travel permits revoked by Israeli authorities in the two weeks leading up to the election, sparking accusations of pre-election censorship. Hours before her flight on 23 October, Francesca Cicardi, a Middle East correspondent for the Spanish newspaper elDiario.es had her travel permit revoked by the Israel Population and Immigration Authority. Cicardi received no formal explanation for the ban, even though she had legitimate credentials from the Government Press Office.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which stated that Netanyahu's government was actively trying to eradicate outside scrutiny of the democratic process based on media editorial stances, strongly condemned the exclusion of foreign reporters. A formal defense of international press freedom and the rights of Spanish journalists working overseas was issued by Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a result of the incident.

Election integrity

A number of political parties filed official complaints with the CEC on election day, claiming that there had been systematic tampering with actual ballots. The Amcha Israel party reported that its ballot slips, which were marked with the Hebrew letter Chaf (ך), had either been purposefully turned face-down to resemble blank voting slips or were entirely absent from several polling places. Similar to this, Yisrael Beiteinu filed an urgent complaint after its slips were discovered missing at a Kiryat Ono polling place; however, the CEC later stated that the station had enough supplies. Additionally, Yisrael Beiteinu reported a "serious irregularity" in Beersheba, where a voter was purportedly given a pre-sealed envelope containing a ballot from a rival Likud party.

The Reservists party, led by Yoaz Hendel, joined the list of factions that filed complaints with the CEC, citing multiple reports that its ballot slips, which had the letters "Dalet-Yud" (די) on them, had been vandalized or removed entirely. Hendel attributed the disruptions to a "fake news campaign" by Likud, calling the incidents a coordinated effort to suppress the faction.

The Yashar party led by Gadi Eisenkot filed its own urgent petition in response to widespread reports of its ballot slips being flipped over, removed, or vandalized across the country. The extent of the incidents was described by the party leadership as a "systematic and deliberate attempt to sabotage the democratic process" as opposed to isolated mistakes.

There have also been reports of irregularities in ultra-Orthodox communities. Voting slips for the Charedi Public party were completely missing from polling places in Bnei Brak, according to several voters, who had to specifically ask election supervisors for them. Public broadcaster Kan reported accounts from voters who alleged that supervisors only produced the missing slips upon direct demand, raising concerns over voter intimidation due to the uniform Haredi composition of the local polling staff.

The CEC released an official statement refuting claims of widespread fraud in response to the growing accusations from the various factions, including Yashar, Together, Amcha Yisrael, Yisrael Beiteinu, and the Reservists party. According to the CEC, "contrary to claims circulating online, there are currently no indications of systematic tampering with ballot slips." The committee urged voters to rely solely on official CEC communications channels for election updates and clarified that isolated, local reports were being looked into and handled individually on the ground.

Netanyahu–Police Chief meeting controversy

Two days prior to the legislative election, on 25 October 2026, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir convened an urgent meeting with Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levi to discuss election security, sparking a significant controversy. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara heavily opposed the meeting, arguing that election candidates are prohibited from interfering with police operations or election management. She also stated that she was unaware of any prior precedent for a meeting of this nature immediately prior to a vote.

Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of the Yashar party, petitioned the CEC to prevent the meeting, accusing Netanyahu of attempting to "sabotage the election" by creating a false public perception of election integrity flaws and trying to put political pressure on public employees. CEC Chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg ultimately allowed the conversation to continue under the stringent legal requirement that the political leadership refrain from discussing the election procedure or any other topics falling under the CEC's exclusive purview. Netanyahu's legal team justified the meeting by claiming defense entities had provided serious security warnings about militant groups attempting to sabotage the election.

But according to a report published the next day in Haaretz, Netanyahu had specifically disregarded Sohlberg's directive during the meeting by warning the Police Commissioner to the possibility of "left-wing anarchists" rioting and tainting the election process. Senior law enforcement officials subsequently accused Netanyahu of deceiving the CEC chairman, stating that Sohlberg "needs to be more alert" to political manipulations regarding the legitimacy of the ballot.

Voter tracking and privacy enforcement

Due to legal disputes surrounding unlawful voter tracking on election day, CEC Chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg issued an urgent interim order prohibiting United Torah Judaism (UTJ) from recording voters. This came after the Movement for Quality Government in Israel filed a petition after Channel 13 disclosed UTJ directives to circumvent prohibition by using handwritten logs.

A September 2026 High Court ruling prohibiting voter arrival tracking under the Protection of Privacy Law was violated by these tracking initiatives. Naftali Bennett's Together party filed additional complaints alleging that Likud was monitoring voter turnout in the Southern Sharon region using a mobile app.

Opinion polls

This graph shows the polling trends from the 2022 elections until the next election day using a local regression. Scenario polls are not included here. For parties not crossing the electoral threshold (currently 3.25%) in any given poll, the number of seats is calculated as a percentage of the 120 total seats.

Results

Exit polls

As of 02:17 Israel Standard Time on 28 October 2026, seven exit polls were released and updated:

Aftermath

With neither bloc predicted to achieve a majority, The Guardian stated that the election was likely to result in weeks of competition to determine which bloc could form a government.

The election was marked by record participation by Israeli Arab voters. According to University of California political scientist Dov Waxman, a strong result for the Arab parties could result in the first government relying on outside support from Arab parties since the 1993–1995 government led by Yitzhak Rabin. BBC diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams stated that Israeli Arabs, who usually have lower turnout than Jewish Israelis, had been motivated to vote in order to defeat Netanyahu.

Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot said that the election was vote of no-confidence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Former prime minister Yair Lapid called it a "total collapse" of the Likud bloc.

Ushar Gabai, assistant to far-right Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, told reporters: "Obviously I'm disappointed, the people of Israel are stupid".

Netanyahu stated that he did not view the election as a defeat. He claimed that the majority of the "Zionist public" voted for the right-wing parties, and that the Knesset "must establish a strong, right-wing, nationalist government", and dismissed the idea of forming a coalition with the Arab parties. Political analyst Abed Abou Shhadeh pointed out the possibility that one of the parties of the opposition bloc "goes rogue" and joins Netanyahu's bloc.