World

Final Israel results confirm Netanyahu's bloc short of a majority, with Arab parties as kingmakers

Jerusalem • October 30, 2026 • By Press Pass USA

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Israel's final election results, released early Friday, confirmed a hung parliament: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc won 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset — eight short of the 61 needed to govern — while the main opposition bloc won 48 and Arab-led parties took a historic 19, leaving weeks of difficult coalition negotiations ahead.

Netanyahu's Likud remained the largest single party, with 27 seats, ahead of Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar at 21 and Together (B'Yachad) at 12, according to Israel's Central Elections Committee. The Joint List won 11 seats, The Democrats and Ra'am eight each, and Yisrael Beiteinu, United Torah Judaism and Otzma Yehudit seven each, with Shas and Religious Zionism at six each. Turnout was 77.9%, with 5,716,665 ballots cast.

The result ends the suspense that followed Tuesday's vote — and the shifting projections that had first pointed to a deadlock and then to a narrow Netanyahu lead — but it settles nothing about who will govern. Neither major bloc can reach 61 without partners it has so far resisted: the opposition would need the Arab-led parties, whose combined 19 seats could deliver a 67-seat majority with Eisenkot's bloc, while Netanyahu's camp would need to peel away support from across a deeply divided parliament. If negotiations fail, another election early next year remains possible.

The Central Elections Committee said the results, subject to minor corrections during routine verification, will be submitted to President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday, November 4, and the new Knesset is due to be sworn in on November 10. Herzog will then task a lawmaker with trying to form a government. Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, remains in office in the meantime. The committee described allegations of systematic electoral violations as baseless, and said the Shin Bet security agency's investigation into suspected irregularities would not affect the final results and did not concern any particular sector of the population.

Sources: The Associated Press (Oct 30, 2026); New York Post (Oct 30, 2026); Israel's Central Elections Committee, as reported by the Associated Press and the New York Post.