Israel’s completed election count has left neither principal political bloc with enough seats for a Knesset majority, leaving the route to a new government unresolved. Benjamin Netanyahu remains caretaker prime minister, while the results still need certification and submission to President Isaac Herzog.
The Netanyahu-aligned bloc has 53 seats, compared with 48 for the bloc led by Eisenkot. The two Arab parties account for the remaining 19 seats in the 120-seat parliament. Neither of the principal blocs has reached the 61 seats needed for a majority.
The election for the 26th Knesset took place on 27 October 2026. It remained indecisive on 29 October, when no clear winner was poised to form a government and Netanyahu continued in his caretaker role.
Both blocs fall short
The 61-seat threshold leaves Netanyahu’s bloc eight seats short of a majority and Eisenkot’s bloc 13 seats short. Netanyahu’s side is five seats ahead of its principal rival, but that advantage does not close the gap between its own tally and the number needed for a governing majority.
Together, the two principal blocs account for 101 of the Knesset’s 120 seats. The other 19 are held by the two Arab parties, outside the reported totals for both the Netanyahu-aligned and Eisenkot-led blocs.
The Arab parties’ combined total is larger than either principal bloc’s shortfall. That is a matter of seat arithmetic, not a settled coalition arrangement: the count does not establish that either party will provide the support needed to take one of the blocs to a majority.
Any route to a majority would therefore require support beyond the seats already counted within one of the principal blocs. Possible combinations remain scenarios, rather than outcomes, and the figures alone do not identify a coalition poised to take office.
The distinction matters because a lead over a rival bloc is not the same as a parliamentary majority. The result gives Netanyahu’s aligned parties the larger of the two principal totals, while leaving both sides below the threshold that a government needs.
Formal steps still pending
Completion of the count does not mean the results have passed through every remaining formal stage. Certification and submission to Herzog are still required, and further Central Elections Committee procedures remain before the president’s consultations on the formation of a government.
The completed count and the formal status of the results are therefore separate parts of the position. The seat totals describe the parliamentary balance, but the remaining committee steps must still precede the presidential consultations. Counting being complete does not remove those outstanding requirements.
Those steps are also separate from the question of whether a viable governing majority can be assembled. The requirement to formalise the results does not turn any of the possible coalition routes into an agreed outcome.
Netanyahu’s continuing role is that of caretaker prime minister, rather than confirmation that his bloc has secured a new majority. Its 53 seats remain below the required total, and the election has not produced a clear winner ready to form a government.
For now, the completed count establishes the distribution of seats, not the composition of the next government. The remaining formal steps and the absence of a majority leave the outcome of government formation open.
