Partial results of the Israeli Knesset elections held on Tuesday showed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's camp secured 55 seats, compared to 49 for the Jewish opposition and 16 for Arab parties, after 51.8 percent of votes were counted. Channel 12 indicated that Netanyahu's bloc obtained this number, while the Change bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot secured 49 seats, and Arab parties obtained 16 seats. To form a new government to replace Netanyahu's government in place since late 2022, at least 61 of the 120 Knesset members are required to express confidence.
In the same context, Netanyahu's "Likud" party obtained 27 seats, Eisenkot's "Yesh Atid" obtained 21 seats, the Joint Arab List obtained 12 seats, and "Together" led by Naftali Bennett obtained 11 seats. "The Democrats" led by Yair Golan obtained 9 seats, the religious "Yahadut HaTorah" obtained 9 seats, "Yisrael Beiteinu" led by Avigdor Lieberman obtained 8 seats, and the religious "Shas" led by Aryeh Deri obtained 7 seats.
For his part, "Jewish Power" led by Itamar Ben-Gvir obtained 6 seats, the religious "Religious Zionism" led by Bezalel Smotrich obtained 6 seats, and the Unified Arab List led by Mansour Abbas obtained 4 seats. On Tuesday evening, the Elections Committee announced that the turnout reached 77.7 percent, an increase of 7.1 percent over the 2022 elections, stating it was the highest since 1999. In the event that forming a regular coalition government is impossible, three other scenarios emerge: forming a unity government, a minority government, or returning to the polls after several months.
He noted that both Netanyahu and Eisenkot agree on rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state, despite UN resolutions stipulating its establishment under the "two-state solution" principle. These results come amid expectations of fierce competition between political camps to form the new government, with ongoing debate over the main security and political issues concerning Israeli voters.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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