Israel election 2026 LIVE updates: Netanyahu, Eisenkot go head-to-head in nation’s first and ‘most consequential’ election since October 7 attacks

Israelis cast their votes amid intensifying war chatter

By Matthew Knott

Good morning and thanks for joining our live coverage of Israel’s election, which is widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s almost two decades in power.

Polls close at 10pm in Israel (7am AEDT) in the first national elections since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, a day that shook the country and plunged the Middle East into turmoil.

Netanyahu’s hold on power is at stake, with the prospect of a return to war with Iran dominating the final days of the campaign.

Centrist rivals are promising to usher in a new era, but the polls have shown a close result between the two blocs, and it may take time before clear results are known.

Israeli media reports passed by the official military censor and published in the final days of the campaign have stated that Netanyahu pressured his military chief to provoke a confrontation with Iran ahead of the elections, suggesting high-level leaks from within the defence establishment. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz denied the reports.

US President Donald Trump told Fox News on the weekend he was deciding whether to “make a deal” with Iran or “finish it off”, adding: “It’s getting to be decision time.”

Netanyahu posted an alarming AI-generated image of a nuclear mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv and spoke about using cryptocurrency to avoid international sanctions in the final days of the campaign.

Read more here.

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In pictures: Israelis head to the polls

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Voters abuzz on decisive day for Israel

By Matthew Knott

At Tel Aviv’s famous Carmel Market, stall owners and patrons were abuzz with chatter about whether they had voted and whom they had voted for.

Bar, a student, said, she was desperate for an end to Netanyahu’s government.

“We really want change,” she said, saying she favoured either Eisenkot or the secular right-wing Netanyahu critic Avigdor Lieberman.

Stall-owner Dudi said: “I don’t know if Netanyahu, but I want the right side to rise.”

Tiferet, visiting from the southern city of Ashkelon, near the Gaza border, said she had not decided who deserved her vote. Keeping Israel safe and animal welfare were her top priorities.

“People here don’t understand what it was like on October 7,” she said. “We need someone much more extreme, much stronger.”

Who is competing in these elections?

By Matthew Knott

As is always the case in Israel, an eclectic array of parties is competing against each other. While some parties – like Netanyahu’s Likud – are mainstays of Israeli politics, it is common for parties to emerge, dissolve and merge with each other in this fluid ecosystem.

As a way to understand the election, it helps to think of three blocs.

The first is known as the pro-Netanyahu bloc. This grouping, which has been in power for the past four years, has been the most right-wing and religious government in Israel’s history. Likud is the biggest party in the bloc. It also comprises two ultra-orthodox parties (United Torah Judaism and Shas) and two ultra-nationalist parties led by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom have been sanctioned by Australia for inciting violence against Palestinians.

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Israelis cast their votes amid intensifying war chatter

By Matthew Knott

Good morning and thanks for joining our live coverage of Israel’s election, which is widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s almost two decades in power.

Polls close at 10pm in Israel (7am AEDT) in the first national elections since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, a day that shook the country and plunged the Middle East into turmoil.

Netanyahu’s hold on power is at stake, with the prospect of a return to war with Iran dominating the final days of the campaign.

Centrist rivals are promising to usher in a new era, but the polls have shown a close result between the two blocs, and it may take time before clear results are known.

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