Israel election count shows no majority for Netanyahu or Eisenkot

JERUSALEM: Vote counting continued Wednesday morning after Israel's national election produced no clear winner, with exit polls from major Israeli television stations showing neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political bloc nor the alliance led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot reaching the 61 seats required for a Knesset majority.

Israel's Central Elections Committee reported Wednesday morning that 60% of ballots had been tallied. Netanyahu's Likud party stood at 21.4% and Eisenkot's Yashar at 16.2%, according to the official data. The committee's release did not state how many seats each party would receive. Israelis vote for parties, which then negotiate alliances to assemble a governing coalition; no single party has ever won a majority on its own.

President Isaac Herzog will soon designate the figure he judges best positioned to build a government. That task typically goes to the leader of the party receiving the most votes. Likud leads with half the ballots counted, though the choice is not binding on Herzog. Netanyahu remains caretaker prime minister while the process continues.

The Israeli military reported that 79.9% of its personnel voted, an increase of more than six percentage points from the prior election. Hundreds of thousands of military ballots remain uncounted, and some polling stations had been placed in combat areas.

At his Jerusalem headquarters after 3 a.m. Wednesday, Netanyahu told supporters that exit polls pointed to Likud as the largest party in the next parliament. He cited Israeli military operations over three years and pledged to finish the effort against Iran's regime, and said no government should depend on Arab parties. Arab-led parties recorded a strong showing and could hold the balance if the two blocs remain tied. Eisenkot spoke in Tel Aviv early Wednesday and said he would form a government.

U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland after returning from rallies in Texas, said of Netanyahu, "I'm hearing that he did very well." He added that it was a "little bit early" and that he had not spoken with Netanyahu about the results.

In Belgrade, a guard outside Israel's Embassy shot and killed an attacker who approached with knives early Wednesday. Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic identified the assailant as a minor and said police were treating the incident as a "terrorist attack." The terror threat level was raised to its highest setting, and the guard sustained a light wound.