Israelis headed to the polls on Tuesday in a national election widely described as the most consequential in the country's history — a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right coalition.
The election is the first since the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, that upended the nation and set Israel on a path toward war in Gaza. If no candidate can form a government with a majority of Knesset seats, new elections would be announced.
Most polling shows Netanyahu's coalition facing a loss of its parliamentary majority, with Gadi Eisenkot emerging as the leading opposition contender. Eisenkot, a former military chief, leads a loosely organized opposition coalition whose son was killed in the Gaza war. He is joined by a center-right former military chief and a far-right national security minister who briefly led an anti-Netanyahu government before Netanyahu's return to power.
Tens of thousands of Israelis living abroad have traveled to vote in person, despite Israeli law generally requiring citizens to vote domestically.
