Exit Polls Show Former PM Netanyahu's Bloc Could Secure Knife-Edge Majority In Knesset

Exit polls showed that the right-ring bloc led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on track to secure victory in Israel's parliamentary elections.

• Two of the three main exit polls gave Netanyahu's bloc 62 seats, while the other one estimated its share at 61, a narrow majority in the 120-seat Knesset. The former Premier's Likud party won a plurality of the vote and is expected to form a government with far-right allies.
• Neither Netanyahu nor Prime Minister Yair Lapid has delivered a concessionary speech as preliminary projections have historically often deviated from actual results. The final results will not be published until later this week.
• The Central Elections Committee has started tallying votes (the count can be followed live here), warning that early results "will look odd." The electoral authority noted that it had found no signs of fraud or manipulation. Official data showed that the voter turnout was 71.3%, the highest since 2015.
• Arab party Balad is balancing on the electoral threshold and could grab four seats from other parties if it makes it into the Knesset. This would affect the broader distribution of seats, potentially depriving Netanyahu's bloc of the expected thin majority.
• The presence of far-right parties in the government could further complicate the tense Israeli-Palestinian relations. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Shtayyeh said anticipated results show "rising extremism" in Israeli politics as the far-right Religious Zionism appeared poised to double its presence in parliament.