Updated Oct. 28, 2026, 8:45 a.m. ET: Adds the latest Central Elections Committee count (84.5% of ballot boxes, as of 6:34 a.m. ET), the expected timing of the double-envelope count, a report on a Knesset speaker push and market reaction.
Israel election results published by the Central Elections Committee with 84.5% of ballot boxes counted, as of 12:34 p.m. Israel time (6:34 a.m. ET) on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc on 54 seats, seven short of a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, The Times of Israel reported. The opposition “change” bloc led by former army chief Gadi Eisenkot stood at 49 seats, and Arab-led parties at 17, according to those figures, which were also reported by The Guardian and Haaretz. No newer official count had been published as of 8:45 a.m. ET.
That arithmetic leaves neither camp with a clear route to the 61 seats needed to govern. Israelis voted on Tuesday in the first general election since the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023, and turnout reached about 77.7%, the highest since 1999, according to the elections committee. Our earlier report covered the record early turnout on election day.
Israel election results by party
Likud remains the largest single party with 27 seats, according to the Guardian’s tally of the 84% count. Eisenkot’s Yashar party had 22, former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s Together party 12 and the Joint List, an alliance of Arab-majority parties, 11. Yair Golan’s Democrats had 8. Yisrael Beiteinu, Shas, United Torah Judaism and Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit had 7 each, while Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism and Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am each had 6.
Three lists were below the 3.25% threshold in the partial count: the Reservists at about 2.7%, People of Israel at about 1.6% and Charedi Public at about 0.2%, according to the committee figures cited by WION. Any of those numbers can still move. Ballots cast in double envelopes, mostly by soldiers but also by diplomats, hospital patients and prisoners, are counted separately at the end. The Israel Defense Forces said turnout among troops was 79.9%, up 6.2 points from 2022, with 809 polling stations set up on bases and in combat zones.
Exit polls released Tuesday night had pointed to a tighter race. The Kan and Channel 13 surveys each showed the two Jewish-led blocs tied at 51 seats, and N12 had Netanyahu’s camp at 52, according to Reuters’ results tracker. The early count leaned toward areas with strong right-wing support, the BBC’s Yolande Knell noted, which is one reason the seat totals shifted through the morning.
Arab-led parties as possible kingmakers
The biggest change from 2022 is on the Arab side. Arab-led lists held 10 seats in the outgoing Knesset, and partial results put them between 17 and 19 at various points on Wednesday. Arab citizens make up about one-fifth of Israel’s population. If every party opposed to Netanyahu joined forces, the opposition would have about 66 seats, a majority, the Guardian calculated.
Most of the Jewish opposition parties ruled out such a partnership during the campaign. Eisenkot has said he would consider it only if the Arab parties recognized Israel as a Jewish state and labeled Hamas an extremist group, the Guardian reported, conditions that effectively exclude a deal. Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman said on the campaign trail that he would not sit in a minority government that relied on Arab parties, according to the BBC.
Others are pushing the opposite way. Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen called on Wednesday for a Jewish-Arab partnership to replace the current government and said anyone trying to form an alternative would have to talk to his alliance. Golan, the Democrats’ leader, said in a statement that a citizen’s vote in the Arab town of Tira “is worth exactly the same” as one in Givat Shmuel. Ra’am’s Abbas, whose party sat in the 2021-2022 coalition that briefly unseated Netanyahu, told the BBC before the vote that he wanted to join the next government.
What Netanyahu and Eisenkot said
Netanyahu addressed supporters in Jerusalem shortly after 3 a.m. and said the right-wing bloc had “a clear, decisive majority” among the Jewish public, adding that Israel must “form a strong, national, right-wing government,” the BBC reported. He stopped short of declaring victory and repeated that he would not partner with Arab parties.
Eisenkot told supporters in Tel Aviv that “the public has chosen change” and that voters had rejected Netanyahu continuing as prime minister. He said he would work with partners to form what he called a Zionist government, “stable and good for all of Israel’s citizens.”
Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges he denies, also suggested during the campaign that the “left and Arabs” were trying to steal the vote. The Central Elections Committee rejected that claim and said it had seen no evidence of systematic tampering, according to the Guardian.
Double envelopes could still move the seat count
The remaining ballots are not trivial. The Central Elections Committee estimates there are about 600,000 double-envelope ballots, a significant increase from 2022, and they may not be fully tallied until Friday, The Times of Israel reported. With a Knesset seat worth roughly 40,000 votes, that pool is large enough to shift several seats. Acting committee director Dean Livne has said the high turnout could mean more absentee ballots than first expected, delaying the final count.
Those ballots have historically leaned away from Arab and Haredi parties, and the financial daily Globes noted the Arab-led lists could lose seats once they are counted, according to The Times of Israel. The Associated Press, citing the committee with about 77% counted, put Likud at 20.8% of the vote and Yashar at 16.4%; Likud won 23.4% in 2022.
Early moves in the new Knesset
Channel 12 reported that Eisenkot’s bloc is looking to use its votes, plus those of the Arab parties, to replace Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana of Likud, The Times of Israel reported. The report said the bloc had not settled on a candidate. Markets also reacted to the uncertain result: the shekel weakened and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange fell on Wednesday, according to The Times of Israel.
What happens next in coalition talks
Final results, including the double envelopes, are expected within a day or two. Once they are presented to President Isaac Herzog, he will consult the leaders of every party that entered the Knesset and ask the candidate with the best chance of building a majority to try. That candidate gets up to six weeks, according to the BBC; if they fail, another lawmaker can be given the mandate, and if no one succeeds, Israel heads to another election. Netanyahu’s government remains in place as a caretaker in the meantime.
Netanyahu’s most direct route would be persuading a smaller opposition party to cross over, while Eisenkot would need either Arab support or a minority arrangement. For background on the threshold math and how coalitions form, see our explainer on Israel’s exit polls, coalition math and what happens next. The Boston Report will update these Israel election results when the final count is certified.
Sources
- The Guardian: Israel election results live, Oct. 28, 2026
- BBC News: Netanyahu and Eisenkot face difficult paths to power
- Haaretz: Netanyahu bloc holds 54 seats as votes are counted
- Reuters: Live 2026 Israel election results and exit polls
- WION: Live updates, Oct. 28, 2026
Additional sources
- The Times of Israel: With 84% of ballots counted, pro-Netanyahu bloc at 54 seats
- The Times of Israel: Live blog, Oct. 28, 2026
- Associated Press: After election, Israel faces coalition-building
- BBC News live: Netanyahu bloc slightly ahead but short of majority
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