Israelis were voting Tuesday in a tense national election widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the wars that have since shaken the Middle East.
Israelis vote for parties, which then form alliances to create a majority coalition. No single party has ever won a 61-seat majority in the 120-member parliament, or Knesset.
Opinion polls suggest a tight race, with no clear winner expected, setting the stage for weeks or even months of negotiations among around a dozen parties expected to win seats in the Knesset.
Here is the latest:
Head of Israel's election commission says fewer irregularities are being reported
According to Dean Livne, acting director-general of the Elections Committee, the overall number of reports about irregularities or issues at polling stations by mid-morning was much lower than in previous elections.
Police believe the arrest of three people in southern Israel who are suspected of being involved in voting bribe attempts was a single incident and not part of a larger campaign, Livne added.
Israeli voters say they are casting ballots for a better future
At a polling station in Jaffa, a mixed Jewish-Arab area of Tel Aviv, voters said the elections were pivotal for the kind of country they want Israel to be.
"I believe we deserve a country with a good quality of life, where we can raise our children and grandchildren in peace and security," said Haim Ron, 69, who said he was voting for Netanyahu's leading rival, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot.
The election is “about the last three years, and about the future we want for our children here,” said voter Noa Sabban.
Israelis can choose from a multitude of parties
Ahead of the vote, 38 parties were registered for the election but some later dropped out. Parties must reach a minimum threshold of 3.25% of the popular vote to get seats in the Knesset, and only around a dozen parties are expected to cross this threshold.
Israelis vote by placing a slip of paper for their party in a blue envelope. Ballots are counted by hand at each polling station by both showing and reading aloud the slip in each envelope.
More than 15,000 cameras have been set up at polling stations to document possible irregularities, along with thousands of volunteer monitors and those associated with the major parties.
Emotions are running high as Israelis vote
“This is critical. And it’s never been as critical,” said Noga Mizrahi, a voter in Jerusalem, speaking of the elections. She said she had come from kibbutz Nirim, which was attacked on Oct. 7.
In Kiryat Shmona, a Netanyahu stronghold near the border with Lebanon, a man kicked and tore down a poster of Eisenkot, the prime minister's chief rival.
In Tel Aviv, some families of those killed in the Hamas-led 2023 attack and families of former hostages held a moment of silence.
“Remember all those whose voices are no more,” said Yona Adam, the mother of Mapal Adam, who was killed.
At a polling station set up in a Jerusalem school, some said they were voting for change while others said they only trusted Netanyahu to keep them secure.
“He’s not responsible for Oct. 7,” said Nisim Cohen, a reservist.
He said he wants Netanyahu to win the election and continue the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and with Iran until Israelis can sleep peacefully.
Politicians and officials begin to vote
Mansour Abbas, the soft-spoken 52-year-old leader of the Islamist party Ra’am, voted in his mountainside hometown in the Galilee.
Ra’am is expected to win at most a handful of seats in the Knesset, but Abbas could emerge as an unlikely kingmaker if neither Netanyahu nor the bloc of parties opposing him win enough seats to form a majority.
Abbas said he was hoping record turnout in Arab communities could help unseat Netanyahu’s right-wing government. “Our vote will change the government,” he said.
Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, also voted. He’s perhaps the most visible of Netanyahu’s allies, with his public taunting of Palestinian detainees.
“God willing I will become defense minister, it will be good for the soldiers and good for the people of Israel,” Ben-Gvir said.
Leading Arab party says some of its activists have been arrested
Ra’am, a leading Arab political party, says at least three of its activists were arrested overnight. It filed a complaint with Israel’s election commission on Tuesday and said the arrests were carried out “without justification” in Bedouin towns in the Negev Desert.
Israel’s police said three people were arrested overnight on suspicion of planning to bribe citizens to vote for Ra’am and denied attempting to interfere with the election.
Mansour Abbas, the Ra’am party leader, said after he voted that the arrests were undemocratic and “an attempt to influence the election results.” He also said that some polling places had reported shortages of Arabic language ballots and encouraged supporters to vote regardless of unforeseen challenges.
Rising crime is motivating Palestinian citizens of Israel to vote
The spokesperson of the Abraham Initiatives, an organization that promotes coexistence and equality in Israel, says that rising crime is prompting more Palestinian citizens of Israel — roughly 20% of the population — to vote.
The organization has tallied 186 crime-related killings in Arab communities so far in 2026. Last year, 252 Palestinian citizens were killed in violent crimes, making 2025 the deadliest year on record.
Lama Yassin said voters linked the unchecked violence to “years of government neglect and a failure to protect our communities.”
“We are demanding the most basic responsibility of any government: to protect the lives of its citizens,” she said.
Turnout was 17% by 10 a.m., election commission says
Initial figures released by the Central Elections Committee show that 17% — or some 1.2 million Israelis — have voted by 10 a.m.
In the last five Israeli elections, voter turnout hovered around 70%, with 70.63% voting in the previous elections in November 2022. The highest voter turnout in Israel’s history was in its first elections in 1949, when 86.9% voted. The lowest voter turnout was in 2006, with just 63.5% turnout.
Netanyahu's rival meets with voters in a southern community attacked in 2023
Eisenkot, Netanyahu's top rival, was up and meeting voters as polls opened in Ofakim, one of the communities in southern Israel that was attacked by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023.
He said that if those in “the government had a shred of responsibility, they would start the morning here," near Gaza.
The visit was likely aimed at reminding voters of the security failures ahead of the deadliest militant attack on Israel in its history, and of Netanyahu’s refusal of a state commission of inquiry into them.
Eisenkot lost his son and two nephews to combat in Gaza. Speaking to the residents, he also repeated his vow to dismantle or destroy the militant Hamas group's “governing force” within 18 months of forming the next government.
“This is a commitment I will uphold,” he said.
Polls open across Israel in a tense election
Thousands of volunteer Israeli election observers were in place at polling stations across the country to monitor the election.
Eyal Sher said he volunteered with a civil society group called Elections Guards because he wanted to play a role in such a critical vote.
“We have a corrupt government that will do anything to stay in power," he said. "Every vote counts and we want to make sure the procedures are kept intact.”
According to Israel’s Central Election Committee, more than 7.3 million Israelis are eligible to vote, including around 330,000 young Israelis who spent their high school years in the shadow of war.
The polling stations — around 12,000 of them — will close in most places at 10 pm. Ballots are manually counted at each polling station immediately after voting ends.
Netanyahu’s legacy is on the line in the vote
Netanyahu has been Israel’s most dominant politician for nearly two decades, and a poor showing could end the 77-year-old’s lengthy career on a bitter note and open the door to a new era in Israeli politics.
A victory would cement his image as the ultimate political survivor. Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump backed Netanyahu's reelection, but the late endorsement still marked a setback for the Likud politician who had billed his tight ties to the Republican president as a selling point for staying in power.
Netanyahu has been a master at forming coalitions with religious and nationalist partners. But opinion polls now suggest a tight race between his bloc and the one led by Eisenkot, which says Netanyahu should be held accountable for Oct. 7 and the failure to turn battlefield victories into diplomatic achievements.
Scars of Oct. 7 weigh heavily on Israelis
The deadliest day in Israel's history has featured prominently in the campaign, but there has been almost no debate over Israel's wartime conduct in Gaza, which led to an international arrest warrant against Netanyahu.
Israel's occupation of much of southern Lebanon and parts of Syria, as well as its two wars launched against Iran, also has broad support among Israelis.
The candidates have instead focused on Netanyahu's role in the security breakdown on Oct. 7; his efforts to exempt ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service and a 2023 judicial overhaul seen by critics as an assault on Israel's democratic institutions.