Skip to content
What happened next?Continue in this file · Israel: 2026 election and formation of a majority
File · Israel: 2026 election and formation of a majority

Israelis vote to elect a new Knesset

Voting began in Israel’s parliamentary election on 27 October 2026. More than 7.3 million eligible voters are choosing the members of the Knesset in a contest testing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Around 12,000 polling stations are serving voters; most are due to close at 10pm local time. Israelis vote for party lists, which subsequently negotiate the formation of a parliamentary majority.

The Knesset has 120 seats and a government needs support from at least 61 members. The opening of polling stations starts national voting, rather than establishing a winner: at the 7am UTC reporting cutoff, the outcome and the composition of the next coalition remain unknown.

Sources 3