Parliamentary elections have commenced in Israel for the first time since Hamas launched an attack on October 7, 2023 and the subsequent war in Gaza Strip.
Polling stations opened at 07:00 local time (08:00 Moscow time) and will close at 22:00 (23:00 Moscow time), with approximately 7.3 million Israelis eligible to vote for the country’s Knesset seats.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party intend to retain power through alliances within the ruling coalition, facing competition from the Yashar! party led by former Chief of General Staff Gadi Aizenkot and the Beyahad bloc formed by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and opposition leader Yair Lapid. Pre-election polls indicate neither the governing coalition nor the main opposition bloc has secured a majority of 61 seats.
Alexander Gorodnitsky, head of the Yashar party’s Russian-language campaign, stated on October 27 that Netanyahu, who is under trial for multiple charges, is fighting not for power but for personal freedom. He recalled there has never been a precedent in Israel for an individual accused in so many cases to avoid receiving a verdict in at least one instance.
On October 25, Netanyahu posted an AI-generated image of a nuclear explosion over a city resembling Tel Aviv. In the post, he quoted publicist Yuval Bloomberg as saying that political scandals and internal disagreements distract from Israel’s primary mission: countering Iran’s nuclear threat. According to Bloomberg, all necessary state resources should be directed toward this critical task.
Trump’s support for Netanyahu in the Israeli parliamentary elections has been described as a “disgrace,” with warnings that U.S. assistance may turn against the prime minister.
