Israel will hold national elections on October 27, its parliament, the Knesset, announced on Sunday — the latest date legally permitted under Israeli law. The vote is widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership over nearly three years of war in Gaza and a series of deepening domestic and regional crises. Netanyahu, 76, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, has confirmed he intends to run and says he plans to win.
The Knesset is set to conclude its current term on July 17, making Netanyahu's far-right coalition government the first in roughly half a century to serve a full four-year term without early dissolution. In the days before parliament enters recess, the government has been racing to pass a series of bills, including measures to reform the judiciary and to suspend the detention of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men who evade mandatory military service — a deeply divisive issue that has strained the coalition and public trust alike. Netanyahu has also sought to reframe his electoral pitch around national unity, saying last month he intends to form "a broad national government" rather than one reliant on either the far right or Arab parties.
Despite that repositioning, Netanyahu faces formidable headwinds. Recent polls show a majority of Israelis want him out of office, and former army chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot has emerged as his main rival. Eisenkot served in Netanyahu's war cabinet before resigning in June 2024, declaring the government had "completely failed" to achieve its stated objectives in Gaza. His son was killed in the early weeks of the Gaza campaign. A Channel 13 poll published last week showed Eisenkot's Yashar party narrowly ahead of Netanyahu's Likud. Separately, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem survey found support for Netanyahu's premiership had fallen from 40.5 percent in early March to 29.4 percent in June.
The backdrop to the election is one of exceptional complexity. Hamas has not been destroyed as Netanyahu promised when he launched the Gaza campaign following the October 7, 2023 attacks — the deadliest in Israel's history — in which 251 people were taken hostage. Israel has also faced criticism over its conduct in Gaza from leading human rights organisations. Meanwhile, Netanyahu is on trial for corruption and could face up to ten years in prison if convicted, with critics accusing him of using the office to delay justice. Public anger has also grown over a ceasefire that ended Israel's military campaign against Iran, with many Israelis viewing the resulting Washington-Tehran deal as unfavourable to their country.
Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at the London-based think tank Chatham House, described the coming election as the most consequential in Israel's history. "From Gaza to the occupied West Bank, Iran and Lebanon, these issues have not been resolved. Israel's relations with the rest of the world, including the United States, have been damaged," he said. "This will be the most consequential election since the founding of Israel in 1948, and it will also be the most toxic." Netanyahu, for his part, has argued that Israel's military campaigns have removed an existential Iranian threat and created conditions for new regional diplomatic agreements, framing the election as an opportunity to consolidate those gains under a unity government.