Here's the latest
• Crucial election: Turnout in Israel’s election is at the highest levels in more than 50 years. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cast his ballot in an election seen as a referendum on his leadership since the October 7, 2023 attacks.
• Key timings: Polls will close at 10 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET). Opinion polls suggest a tight race between Netanyahu and his rival Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief.
• Main issues: Security and accountability are powerful electoral forces after years of war. Opinion polls suggest the economy and cost of living are also leading concerns for many voters.
• Parliamentary make-up: No single party has ever won a 61-seat majority in Israel’s 120-member parliament, or Knesset. Instead, governments are formed through alliances, which can take weeks or even months to form.
Updates
(43)Voting ends in a few minutes. Here's what to expect next
Voting in Israel’s tightly contested election is about to end — although election officials have stressed anyone who arrived at a polling station before the 10 p.m. cutoff time will be able to vote.
Immediately after that, Israel’s biggest news channels will release their exit polls, giving the world a first indication of what might happen next.
Remember: Exit polls are based on surveys done with voters at polling stations — they are not actual results. Those will start coming in over the next few hours.
Why do many Israelis relate to Gadi Eisenkot? A political analyst explains
What makes a former military chief relatable to many Israelis? For Gadi Eisenkot’s supporters, it’s partly a sense that he shares their grief.
That’s according to Dahlia Scheindlin, a political analyst and senior columnist at Haaretz, considered a liberal publication, who told CNN that Eisenkot’s personal losses often come up in conversations with voters.
“He himself is a bereaved father,” she said.
Eisenkot’s son was killed fighting in Gaza two months into the war. The next day, he lost a nephew. And a year later, he lost another.
“Nobody says this is the reason to vote for him, but it often comes up when you ask why people feel like he’s so relatable,” Scheindlin said. “Many Israelis are living with a sense of loss.”
His military career is another part of his appeal. In Israeli politics, a storied military career is seen as a major asset and a gateway to success. Several former generals became prime ministers, including Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak.
Eisenkot is attempting to play on the same sentiment. Supporters see him as “having devoted his life as a career army person to the good of the state,” Scheindlin said, adding that in Israel, like in many countries, the army is seen as above politics.
“In many ways, he represents everything that Netanyahu does not in their eyes,” said Scheindlin. His recent arrival in politics also leaves him less associated with its “general dirty business,” she said.
Many voters, she observed, feel the current government “is working only for Netanyahu’s closed circles.” In contrast, Eisenkot “is on their side.”
Read more on Netanyahu’s main challenger in Israel’s elections here.
Israelis get a day off and free public transport to vote
Unlike many countries, Israel only allows in-person voting on the day of the election. There are no absentee ballots and no voting by proxy or by mail.
On top of that, each voter can only vote at the polling station that’s been assigned to them in their place of residence – although there are some exceptions to this rule, including for diplomats, soldiers at military bases, hospital patients, prisoners and people who have been evacuated from their homes.
To make it easier for people to be able to turn up, election days are traditionally public holidays in Israel. Schools, which are often used as polling stations, are shut, as are most workplaces.
To make any journey home to vote easier, many public transportation services including intercity buses and trains have been running for free since yesterday evening.
Israel voter turnout remains at record levels, surpassing previous 10 elections
Voter turnout in Israel’s election remains at record levels, according to the latest update from the Central Elections Committee, and has already surpassed the total voter turnout for the previous 10 elections.
As of 8:00 p.m. local time, 74.3% had voted, the committee said, with two hours of voting left until polling places close. A total of 5,450,000 had already cast their ballot out of about 7.3 million eligible voters.
Such a high turnout already surpasses the total turnout in all elections going back to 1999, when voter turnout reached 77.2%. In the 2022 election that put Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back in power, turnout reached 70.6%.
The final voter turnout figure will be published one hour after polls close, the committee said.
What is the electoral threshold, and why is it so critical?
One of the most important numbers in Israeli politics is 3.25.
If a political party running in the election wants to qualify for the next Knesset, it needs to garner at least 3.25% of the vote. That’s the electoral threshold for making it into Israel’s parliament. Depending on voter turnout, that works out to about 160,000 votes or so.
Of the 37 parties currently running, most will fall far short of the electoral threshold, gaining only a handful of votes. This happens in every Israeli election. At most, 14 parties have a real chance of qualifying for the 120-seat Knesset.
What happens if a party doesn’t make it past the threshold? Its votes are thrown out. And this can have a dramatic effect on the outcome of the entire election.
In 2022, the left-wing Meretz party fell just short of the electoral threshold, bringing in 3.16% of the vote. It would have been enough for about four seats in the Knesset. But without those votes, the balance of power shifted to the right wing and to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was able to put together a government that lasted its entire four-year term, the first time that’s happened in Israel since 1988.
This time, a number of smaller right-wing parties have been polling ahead of the vote right around the electoral threshold, including Ofer Winter’s Amcha Yisrael, Yoaz Hendel’s Reservists, and even Religious Zionism, the party of Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. If one or more of these parties fall short of the threshold, it could have a dramatic impact on whether Netanyahu has a likely path to remain in power.
One hour until polls close in Israeli election. Catch up here
It’s now just one hour until polls are set to close in Israel’s pivotal national election, widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Prominent Israeli political figures have cast their ballots today, in one of Israel’s most significant elections in its history and the first since the deadly Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks.
People across the Middle East are watching closely to see who might lead the Jewish state amid fears of further turbulence in the region.
Here are the latest developments:
- Millions of voters: The turnout is at its highest level since numbers were first recorded in 1973, according to the Central Elections Committee. Many young Israelis are voting for the first time. Meanwhile, Arab voters in Israel said they planned to vote in droves.
- From Boston to Jerusalem: Rabbi Claudia Kreiman told CNN she flew to Israel for just one night, to cast her vote in an election she believes will determine the country’s future. “I haven’t done this for another election. This election feels urgent in a way that nothing else has felt,” she said.
- Palestinians in Gaza: For many people in the territory, who have no vote in Israel’s election, who wins is moot. “The programs announced by the Israeli parties — whether parties of Netanyahu’s camp or parties of the opposition — all agree that there will not be an independent Palestinian state,” Ahed Ferwana from central Gaza told CNN.
- October 7 families: Those affected by the October 7 attacks have held pictures of their loved ones outside several polling places in Israel throughout the day. Early Tuesday morning, families of October 7 victims and former hostages gathered at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square to hold a somber minute of silence.
- Emotional visits: The two leading candidates, Netanyahu and Gadi Eisenkot, have made emotionally charged stops on their election day trail. Read more out where they visited here.
CNN’s Tal Shalev, Dana Karni, Oren Liebermann, Abeer Salman, Mohammad Al Sawalhi, Kara Fox, Mostafa Salem and Arina Porkhovnik contributed reporting.
Why is the world watching this election so closely?
For a country the size of New Jersey, Israel draws an outsize share of international attention and headlines. Certainly, President Donald Trump’s relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and the war against Iran that the two launched together — is part of the reason.
Amichai Cohen, the vice president of research at the Israel Democracy Institute, lays out three more reasons the world is watching this election so closely.
First, he told CNN, is the hope that a different government in Israel would be willing to engage more on diplomacy in the Middle East and the potential of ending conflicts in Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Gaza. “Perhaps there are also routes for possibly reopening negotiations with the Saudis” toward normalization, he said.
Still, Cohen says he does not see a possibility for a dramatic change on this issue. “I don’t think there is a wide gap between (Gadi) Eisenkot and Netanyahu on the specifics — that Eisenkot will suddenly become Yitzhak Rabin and go to a peace deal with whomever. I don’t think it’s on the table actually.”
The world is also watching closely to see what will happen in the occupied West Bank. Netanyahu’s government drove a massive expansion in Israeli settlements while downplaying a surge in settler violence toward Palestinians. Britain and a dozen other countries are preparing sanctions against Israeli settlements, and that list may well expand if another Netanyahu government drives the same policy of entrenching Israel’s grip on the territory.
Finally, Cohen told CNN that Israel has been perceived internationally as a country in democratic decline. Netanyahu’s government pushed a judicial overhaul that would have weakened checks and balances and increased attacks on the press.
“The question of whether anti-populist forces will be able to reclaim democracy is an important question universally and Israel is, to a certain extent, an important part of this discussion,” Cohen said.
Arab voters hope election "will be decisive and bring about change"
Arab voters in Israel said that they plan to vote in droves on Tuesday, as they seek to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and elect members of parliament who will focus on tackling anti-Arab discrimination.
“This time, frankly, we Arabs here are being oppressed by a corrupt government,” said Adel Amer, one resident of the Arab-majority town of Kafr Qassem who spoke to CNN on Tuesday. He said he is specifically voting against the current government and far-right ministers.
Another local resident, Dr. Ayman Odeh, said that this election feels different than previous years, adding that “all my hopes” are pinned on the Arab members of Israel’s parliament.
“I truly hope that this time they will join hands and work together in the Knesset to help Arabs,” Odeh said. “To put an end to racism and discrimination, so that we can begin to feel that we are all equal members of this society – that this country is our country.”
For context: There are two main Arab-majority parties running in the elections: Mansour Abbas’ Raam and Yousef Jabareen’s Joint List. Although other parties are unlikely to form a coalition government with them, both parties could become key to any potential anti-Netanyahu bloc by offering support from outside a coalition.
Another resident Kafr Qassem, Sujood Amer, said it’s imperative that everyone vote to try to bring about change “no matter how small.”
Election officials refuse Netanyahu's request to extend voting times
Israel’s Central Elections Committee has rejected a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and other right wing parties to extend the vote by an hour.
The committee said there is “no justification” for extending voting hours, citing a high voter turnout that “indicates extensive public involvement in the democratic process.”
Voters who arrive at their polling stations by closing time – 10 p.m. ET – will be able to exercise their right to vote, it said.
The Likud did not give a reason for the extension request. But the Haredi religious political party Shas said there were “unusual overloads recorded at polling stations.” They said that they had filed the request to prevent a situation in which citizens waiting in line will not be able to vote.
Meanwhile, the Yashar party, led by Netanyahu’s main challenger, Gadi Eisenkot, strongly opposed the request.
In a statement, they accused the Likud of attempting to “create a basis for claims against the integrity of the elections.”
As Israel votes, Palestinians in West Bank say election won't change their reality
As Israel votes, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank say the results - whatever they are - won’t change their reality.
Israel imposed a general closure on the West Bank on Tuesday for the election. It follows an earlier blockade on the city of Hebron after Palestinian gunmen shot and killed two Israeli soldiers at a military checkpoint on Friday. Following the attack, the Israeli military began forcing Palestinian families to leave their homes in parts of the city as forces began demolishing homes and businesses.
On Tuesday, displaced Palestinians in Hebron protested against what they described as collective punishment that has forced thousands to evacuate.
“Where is the democracy in all of this? Their elections are today, sure, but what about us? Aren’t we human beings? We want to go out, we want to visit the doctor,” Noura Nassar told Reuters. She said she struggled to get medical treatment because of the blockages, checkpoints, and road closures.
“Among themselves they will elect who is the oppressor and who will destroy the Palestinian people. That is their election,” said Sana’ Salman Abu Sneineh, another Palestinian who had been expelled from her home.
Watch: First time voters tell CNN who they're backing -- and why
Young Israelis who are voting for the first time have mostly known a country defined by political turmoil, conflict, and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Security, the economy and accountability rank among their top voter issues. Watch to find out who these young people are supporting – and why.
What role do the ultra-Orthodox parties play in the election?
The role of the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel has emerged as a central issue in this election campaign. With the country engaged in a multi-front war, the ultra-Orthodox — or Haredi — population wants to formally restore a broad exemption from Israel’s mandatory military service.
That exemption has become a flashpoint for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, who, despite a 2024 Supreme Court ruling that removed the exemption, has widely refused to enforce the law that would conscript Haredi men.
Netanyahu’s opponents have attacked him over the lack of Haredi conscription, especially with the Israeli military facing a manpower shortfall.
The ultra-Orthodox community is one of the fasting-growing communities in Israel. Approximately 1.5 million Haredi Israelis live in the country, making up about 14.3% of the total population, according to the Israel Democracy Institute. The community has a high birth rate and low participation in the workforce.
The two main ultra-Orthodox parties — Shas and United Torah Judaism — have long formed the backbone of Netanyahu’s coalitions. They have granted him support in exchange for favorable state budgets, funding for their religious institutions and other benefits for their constituents.
The most politically charged of those benefits has been blanket exemption from military service. Most Jewish Israelis over 18 are subject to conscription, but Haredi men had long been exempted for religious study. Over the past four years, the ultra-Orthodox parties have sought to preserve and expand that exemption, even as wars on multiple fronts stretched the Israeli military.
Amid strong public opposition, Netanyahu’s government failed to pass legislation cementing the exemption, and nearly all of the opposition parties have now made universal military service a central campaign pledge.
Podcast: Is this the end of the road for Netanyahu in Israel?
Israelis are heading to the polls this week in a high-stakes election that could imperil Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu’s grip on power. But what is motivating voters? And does the endorsement of US President Donald Trump make a difference?
If you’re on the go and want a deep-dive on the issues facing Israeli voters, listen to this episode of CNN’s ‘One Thing’ podcast.
What are the blocs in Israeli elections, and how do they work?
In Israel’s 120-seat Knesset, no single party wins enough seats to secure an outright majority of 61 seats. In past elections, the biggest party frequently emerges with 20 to 30 seats total.
From there, party leaders must assemble blocs from different parties that work together to create a coalition. The politician who can assemble a bloc of 61 seats is the prime minister. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc consists of far-right parties and ultra-Orthodox parties. Although there is some ideological difference between the parties, the bloc has proven itself to be incredibly durable these past four years, and fundamentally loyal to Netanyahu, allowing him to remain in power.
His main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, has a far more diverse bloc of parties with greater ideological differences. Eisenkot’s bloc spans right-wing, centrist and left-wing parties with different approaches to the occupied West Bank and other issues. If the latest polls are accurate, Eisenkot would likely have to rely on some form of support from the Arab parties if he wants to oust Netanyahu, and that adds even more challenges to his political calculations.
The last politician to oust Netanyahu — Naftali Bennett, currently the head of the center-right B’Yachad party — was able to hold his government together for only about 13 months before it collapsed over ideological differences.
This is where Netanyahu has a clear advantage: He commands the loyalty of his bloc in a way that no other politician has.
Eyes across the Middle East turn to Israel’s ballot box
People across the Middle East are watching the Israeli elections to see who might lead the Jewish state amid fears of further turbulence in the region.
The largest Arab broadcasters are providing rolling coverage of the elections, describing it as a “crucial test” with analysts laying out different scenarios.
In Iran, the largest newspapers avoided mentioning the elections on their front pages this morning — a deliberate move to signal disinterest in the consequential vote. Later, Iran’s state news agency IRNA published the different scenarios that could arise from the election.
“We’re following because we want to know if the Israeli people are actually tired of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu as much as we are,” another 37-year-old Egyptian man, Karim, said.
In Syria, Sara, said she’s concerned over who the next candidate might be.
“It definitely concerns me and my people,” the 27-year-old added. “But whoever will come might just be worse.”
A Lebanese user on X posted a meme showing contestants at a popular gameshow awaiting results with the caption: “us waiting to see if the Israeli right or left will bomb us.”
“I’m paying attention to the elections and the news but nothing is going to change,” an Iranian resident from Tehran said. “They don’t like Iran and want war as a matter of state policy.”
Rabbi flew from Boston to Jerusalem for one night to cast her vote
Rabbi Claudia Kreiman says she flew from Boston to Jerusalem for just one night – to cast her vote in an election she believes will determine the country’s future.
“I haven’t done this for another election. This election feels urgent in a way that nothing else has felt,” she said.
The senior rabbi at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, Massachusetts, is among thousands of Israelis who flew back to the country to participate in the elections.
Kreiman told CNN it was “an honor” and “a privilege” to be able to cast her “vote for hope, for possibility, for peace.”
For her and many other Israeli voters there’s one thing we definitely need to talk about, she said. “Do we want to live forever in war? Or do we want to believe and imagine a different possible future security for Israelis?”
For Kreiman, that future means security for Israelis, “dignity for Israelis and Palestinians together side by side,” and leadership that cares for all its citizens.
Next Tuesday, she will vote again – this time in Massachusetts, “also fighting for democracy”.
Her commitment to democracy is rooted in her childhood in Chile, where she grew up under dictatorship.
“We have to fight for democracy. We have to do it joyfully,” Kreiman said.
Israel sees highest voter turnout since numbers were first recorded
Voter turnout in Israel’s election is at its highest level since numbers were first recorded in 1973, according to the Central Elections Committee.
At 4 p.m. local time, 55.7% of voters had cast a ballot, the committee said, much higher than the same hour in the 2022 elections, when turnout stood at 47.5%.
A total of 4,085,075 voters out of approximately 7.3 million voted already, the committee said. There are still six hours of voting left until polls close at 10 p.m. local time.
High voter turnout poses a risk to the smaller parties running for the Knesset, putting them in danger of falling below the electoral threshold as the turnout rises. Parties need to secure 3.25% of the vote to cross the threshold; the total number of votes needed rises as overall turnout increases.
Final round of pre-election polls last week showed Netanyahu falling short of victory
The final found of pre-election polls in Israel last week showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu falling short of a clear victory in the October 27 election.
The polls also suggested that his main rival, former Israeli military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, is also short of securing a clear victory and would likely need to rely on the support of Israel’s Arab parties to oust Netanyahu.
The poll from Channel 13 News found that Netanyahu’s bloc would fall from its current 64 seats to a much lower 50 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Netanyahu’s right-wing and religious bloc needs to secure at least 61 seats for outright victory.
Meanwhile, Eisenkot’s bloc, which consists of right-wing, centrist and left-wing parties, would get 54 seats, beating Netanyahu while still falling short of a clear victory. The poll found that the two Arab parties could get a total of 16 seats.
Channel 12’s final pre-election poll found that Netanyahu’s bloc receives the same 50 seats while Eisenkot’s bloc has a total of 56 seats. The Arab parties in this poll are predicted to have 14 seats.
The poll from Kan 11 News also had Netanyahu’s bloc at 50 seats, but Eisenkot’s bloc had 52 seats, a narrow lead that still leaves both men short of outright victory.
In this poll, the Arab parties were predicted to have 14 seats, while a small party focused on Israeli military reservists and economics secured four seats. This small party, known as the Reservists, has not pledged to support either bloc.
These three major polls found that Netanyahu’s Likud would have 19 to 21 seats, while Eisenkot’s Yashar would secure 22 to 23 seats.
In the final round of polling, the right-wing Channel 14 showed Netanyahu with outright victory, predicting that he would secure 62 seats with his coalition, leaving Eisenkot with only 44 seats.
Channel 14, widely considered a Netanyahu mouthpiece, has repeatedly released polls showing that Netanyahu would secure a clear victory in the elections. These results have been an outlier from virtually every other major poll in the country, which has shown Netanyahu’s coalition falling below the total required for victory.
Higher Arab turnout could help decide Israel’s next government
Arab voter turnout for Israel’s election is expected to be substantially higher than in the 2022 vote, when it was just over 50%. Pollsters have projected a turnout as high as 70% in the community, a surge that could prove significant as neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his main challenger, Gadi Eisenkot, are expected to have a clear path to forming the next government.
The support of the two main Arab-majority parties – Mansour Abbas’s Raam and Yousef Jabareen’s Joint List – could be critical to doing so, even if the main parties have ruled out explicit cooperation.
By offering political support from outside the coalition, they can back Eisenkot and provide him the numbers he needs to form a government. Earlier this month, Jabareen said his party was willing to serve as a “safety net” to oust Netanyahu.
As he cast his vote today, Raam leader Mansour Abbas urged Arab citizens to exercise their democratic right.
“This is essential to changing our situation and addressing the problems we face as an Arab community, such as violence, crime, home demolitions, fines, racism, and incitement,” he said.
“The vote is an important tool for changing the political situation. A government that came to power through the ballot box can be removed through the ballot box.”
CNN’s Oren Liebermann contributed reporting.
In pictures: Prominent Israeli political figures cast their ballots
Prominent Israeli political figures have cast their ballots today, in one of Israel’s most significant elections in its history.
Current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cast his vote at a polling station in Jerusalem, calling it a “very moving and fateful moment,” while his main opposition, former Israeli military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, urged “all Israelis to go vote and stick to the mission of replacing the worst government since the state’s founding.”
Here’s a look at Netanyahu, Eisenkot, and other figures voting today:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party
Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the centrist Yashar party
Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing Bennett 2026 party
Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing Democrats party
Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party
Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionist Party
