Israel Election: Final Days Before Vote

The Knesset building in Jerusalem ahead of the Israel election on Oct. 27, 2026 — The Knesset building in Jerusalem. Photo: Tsvika Israeli / Israel Government Press Office, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Israel’s election for the 26th Knesset takes place on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, and the campaign enters its last weekend under a legal ban on new polls, heavier security for candidates and a turnout race in cities that have long voted for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud. It is Israel’s first national vote since the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, and the wars that followed in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, Reuters reported.

How the Oct. 27 election date was set

The Knesset voted in May to disband, which left open the possibility of an early ballot. On July 12, coalition chairman Ofir Katz told a parliamentary committee that the vote would stay on its original legal date of Oct. 27, according to Reuters. The Knesset’s own website later confirmed that the 25th Knesset had gone into its election recess and that the 26th Knesset election would be held on Tuesday, 16 Marcheshvan 5787, which is Oct. 27, 2026.

The Interior Ministry’s voter registry guide says citizens qualify if they are Israeli citizens listed with an address in the population registry and turn 18 no later than election day. A Knesset research note points out that Israel has postponed a national election because of war only twice: the first Knesset vote moved from October 1948 to January 1949, and the 1973 vote moved from October to December because of the Yom Kippur War.

Polling blackout until the exit polls

Israeli law bars publishing new polls from Saturday until polling stations close at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, when the TV networks release exit polls, The Times of Israel reported. The last surveys released on Friday, Oct. 23, showed neither Netanyahu’s coalition nor the opposition “change bloc” reaching the 61 seats needed for a majority. Our roundup of the final polls has the seat numbers.

If no one can form a government, Israel would hold repeat elections in early 2027, and Netanyahu would stay on as caretaker prime minister, The Times of Israel said.

Campaign map in the final 100 hours

Polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday. Ynet reported that Likud is focusing its last push on about 20 large cities, among them Ashkelon, Ashdod, Be’er Sheva, Ofakim, Netanya and Holon, with Netanyahu and ministers each expected to make five or six campaign stops a day. Likud and Religious Zionism have set up a joint election-day operations center where hundreds of volunteers will contact supporters street by street, according to the report.

Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff who leads the Yashar party, and former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who heads B’Yachad, are campaigning in many of the same places to win over undecided voters, Ynet reported. Bennett has narrowed his polling gap with Eisenkot, his main rival for the lead in the anti-Netanyahu camp, according to the outlet.

Threats, security details and calls for calm

Bennett’s security detail has been doubled to roughly the level given to a defense minister after threats and attempted attacks, according to Hebrew media reports that his party later confirmed, The Times of Israel reported. Last month, glass salt shakers were thrown at Bennett during a campaign stop in Bnei Brak and hit two staff members. Police have charged a 26-year-old local man with simple assault. Yisrael Beytenu said its chairman, Avigdor Liberman, had received a series of death threats, and it filed another complaint with the Knesset sergeant-at-arms.

Yashar said the Shin Bet told the party that Eisenkot would get a security detail starting Sunday morning, according to The Times of Israel’s live blog. The paper also reported that a man was detained after allegedly attacking Bennett’s security team in Tel Aviv.

President Isaac Herzog met Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg and Shin Bet director David Zini to discuss election security, The Jerusalem Post reported. “Elections are not a civil war,” Herzog said. He warned of “many hostile foreign digital influences” aimed at the vote. Zini said the Shin Bet’s election work is “directly subordinate” to the committee chairman. Two days earlier, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman had reported that Israel still has no national policy or lead government body for fighting foreign influence campaigns online, the Post reported.

Security backdrop

The vote comes during regional tension. The IDF plans to lock down the West Bank and bar Palestinians from settlements until after election day, The Times of Israel reported. That follows a shooting that killed two Israeli soldiers near Hebron, which we covered in our report on this week’s attacks in France, Jordan and the West Bank. Earlier in the week, Israeli jets flew toward Iran’s border in what officials called a show of force, as described in our earlier coverage.

What happens on election night

Exit polls come out when polls close at 10 p.m. Israel time (4 p.m. ET). The Central Elections Committee then publishes official results as ballots are counted. Our explainer on how Israel’s election system works covers the 3.25% threshold and the steps that follow the count, from President Herzog’s consultations to a Knesset confidence vote.

Sources

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Israel Election Enters Final Weekend Amid Threats, Poll Blackout and Turnout Push