High turnout as Israel goes to the polls in most consequential election in its history – live updates

Israelis are turning out in record high numbers to vote in an election that many describe as critical. The urgency among opposition voters is even higher than supporters of Netanyahu and his coalition, analysts say.

One of the voters who considers this an existential moment for Israel is Nir Honi, who changed his name by deed poll and has spent eight days inside a small stone circle outside the president’s residence, dressed in biblical- style clothing, in a one-man call for change.

His protest harks back to the story of a first-century Jewish scholar named Honi who convinced God to end a drought with a similar protest.

“(Honi) drew a circle around himself with a stick, and said ‘dear God, I will not move from here until you have mercy on your children and bring us rain’,” the newly renamed Nir Honi said. “My problem is not rain, its a more spiritual issue.”

“We have been in a continuous disaster since October 7th 2023,” he said.

We did not learn anything, we did not investigate, the same government continued and they want to continue for four more years.”

So eight days ago the long-term activist changed his last name to Nir Honi and launched his protest. He has left only once, to vote.

On Monday, which is called the day of the prayer for rain, I came here, I drew a circle in front of the residence of the president of Israel and I said, ‘Dear God, I will not move from here until the October 7th government moves’. From that moment on I have lived in this small circle.”

The Palestinian Israeli vote is a critical camp in this election, representing about one fifth of all eligible voters. Their votes are expected to go to either Ra’am, led by Mansour Abbas, or Joint List, an electoral alliance of Palestinian-Israeli parties.

But for them them, change will not be straightforward, as my colleague Julian Borger in Nazareth writes.

Even if the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot wins more seats than Netanyahu’s coalition, it is not expected to win an outright majority on its own, and it has so far ruled out going into coalition with the Palestinian Israeli parties, who could well hold the balance of power ones the votes are counted.

Amjad Shbita, the general secretary of Hadash, the leading party in the Joint List coalition, thought that the Eisenkot’s approach might change after the elections.

“He cannot sit down [in coalition] with Netanyahu, and he won’t want to go back to another round of elections, so we think he can be flexible,” he said.

In Nazareth, the largest Palestinian-majority town in Israel, the turnout at polling stations has been noticeably stronger than last elections.

By 2pm the turnout was over 32%, up from 28% at this time four years ago.

That was still below the average Jewish turnout across the country, but a surge of evening voting is expected here as voters come home from work.

At the headquarters of the Joint List, the biggest coalition of Palestinian-Israeli parties, the most pressing concern was the spoiler tactics of far-right election monitors at the predominantly Palestinian polling stations.

“They can say that they want to check all the voter numbers and identity and everything, so they can slow things down, so that people wait a long time and give up. That’s their intention,” Amjad Shbita, the general secretary of Hadash, a socialist movement which is the leading party in the Joint List coalition.

At the worst, these tactical ploys have slowed the process down so that it took 30 minutes to vote, rather than just a couple, he said.

The Joint List sent its workers out to the polling station to provide water and folding chairs so that voters would not lose patience and go home.

Shbita said that Palestinian Israel motivation is strong enough to overcome such obstacles.

“It is the first time for a long time that a government has stayed in office for its full term, four years,” he said.

“We are talking about one of the worst governments when it comes to Arab society. We feel racism at all levels of Israeli society, in hospitals, in buses, in public transportation, in the media. So people understand that today we have the opportunity to change the government.”

Voter turn-out is shattering all records. 55.7% of eligible Israelis had cast their votes by 4pm local time, according to the latest numbers from the Central Elections Committee.

That’s an 8.2% increase from the 2022 vote.

Polls are open until 10pm local time, after which the first exit polls will come out.

Voters have turned out in droves at polling stations across the country.

Amid the highest voter turnout in decades, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies resorted to racist scare tactics, including unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud, to urge their own voters to the polls.

“We’re in a war for our home,” Netanyahu said in a social media post in the early afternoon, with unsourced claims of low voter turnouts in strongholds of his Likud party. “Muslim Brotherhood supporters are raiding the polling stations and stealing the elections. Go out and vote, recover it!”

In 2015, Netanyahu claimed that “Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls” in a bid to motivate his party’s base. The comments drew a rebuke from then-US President Barack Obama and Netanyahu apologised for them soon after winning another mandate.

A decade later he is doubling down on that political tactic. A robo-call to voters purporting to come from the prime minister made groundless accusations that Palestinian citizens of Israel were trying to “steal the election”. A spokesman for Netanyahu did not respond to questions about the call.

In the call, a man who sounds like the prime minister falsely claims that three leaders of the Ra’am party had been caught with envelopes full of cash. He also says that left wing women were driving Palestinian women to polling stations, which is not illegal under Israeli law.

He finishes by urging his own voters to turn out. Polling day is a holiday for most Israelis, who often use it to go to the beach, hiking or other activities with their family.

“You need to go to the polling stations. Everyone needs to vote. There is no beach. No barbecue, there is nothing (else) now,” it says. “Everyone must go out to vote to ensure the victory of the right against the left.”

Earlier he shared photos that purported to show empty polling stations in Likud-supporting areas, and long lines in opposition strongholds. The Guardian saw long queues on Tuesday morning in areas with high support for Netanyahu and his allies, including parts of Jerusalem and the settlement of Efrat.

After casting his own ballot, far right Jewish supremacist Itamar Ben Gvir went to a Palestinian- majority town to make similar claims. “Now in Kfar Qasim. Don’t let them win”, he posted above a social media video filmed on the outskirts of the town, the site of a notorious massacre by Israeli border police in 1956.

“Voter turnout in the Arab sector is off the charts, unprecedented.” he says. “If you want this country to remain Jewish and Zionist…then get out and vote.”

The US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has just issued a clarification on his election day tweet this morning which prompted a few raised eyebrows. Earlier he’d written on X:

Today is election day in Israel, which is a national holiday. All voting is in person, ID required. No mail-in or absentee ballots. Arabs vote same as Israelis. Contentious process, but it’s a democracy-not many of those in this region!

The “Arabs vote same as Israelis” phrasing was perceived by some as appearing to imply that Arab voters in Israel aren’t Israeli or due the same vote.

Huckabee’s since posted a follow-up, agreeing with Axios journalist Barak Ravid who pointed out “Mr Ambassador, the Arabs who vote are Israelis…”.

“Correct and I should have stated it that way!” said Huckabee.

10 million ppl in 8m Jews, 2m Arabs. ALL are Israeli citizens-Jew, Muslim, or Christian. All vote, serve in IDF, in Knesset, & proudly have Israeli passports. Women equal to men. All have free speech.

As we reported earlier though, there are serious concerns about voter intimidation of Palestinian citizens in Israel – who represent about 21% of the population – and suppression of Arab parties.

So far today, Ra’am, the party headed by Mansour Abbas, has filed a complaint to the Central Elections Committee, saying their activists were detained by police this morning before voting began and there weren’t enough Arab language ballot papers being distributed, according to Haaretz reporting.

Huckabee’s comments were also likely only referring to the roughly 7 million Jewish Israelis and 1.7 million Palestinian citizens of Israel who live within the country’s pre-1967 borders and have full voting rights.

Of the 15 million people who live in areas under Israeli control, more than 5.5 million Palestinians have no vote including 3.1 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, 350,000 Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.

We’ve reported on how many Israelis are viewing this election as one of the most important of their lifetime, and politicians across the spectrum have characterised it as “existential” for the future of the Israeli state.

That urgency does appear to be translating into record turn-out at the polls according to latest figures from the Central Elections Committee.

As of 2pm local time, 44.9% of voters had cast their ballot. This is the highest turn-out since record keeping began in the 1970s.

The voting level at this hour is also about 6% higher than the last election in 2022, where Netanyahu was ultimately able to scrape together a slim majority coalition with far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties.

The queues are so long today that the electoral authority has also issued fresh guidance on how to ease congestion; advising polling staff to start verifying voters’ IDs while they’re still in line.

Voting is open until 10pm local time and any eligible Israeli who arrives by a polling station by then can cast their vote. As we’ve reported, many eligible voters have also flown back into the country for the sole purpose of making their ballot count today.

It has just gone past 3pm in Tel Aviv and 1pm in London, where we are currently blogging from. Here is a summary of where things stand:

• Turnout is at its highest so far in decades as Israelis vote in what is widely considered to be one of the most consequential elections in the country’s history.

• Polls have opened in the first election since the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023, Israel’s subsequent destruction of Gaza, and the launch of its war with the US against Iran.

• Tens of thousands of Israelis living abroad have flown in for the elections, according to Aid Coalition.

• Exit polls are released at 10pm Israeli time (8pm GMT), and the first indication of actual voting counts usually emerges in the early hours of the morning.

• Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main rival is Gadi Eisenkot, a former head of the Israeli military and relative political newcomer.

• A consistent majority of Israeli polls show Netanyahu’s coalition bloc with the ultra-Orthodox and the far right will fall below the threshold of 61 seats needed to form a government.

• But even though there is a clear anti-Netanyahu majority, polls indicate that the Jewish Israeli opposition bloc will also fall short of the required seats, meaning weeks or even months of political wrangling may be in store as parties make deals and trade concessions.

• There was a suspected attempted stabbing of the leader of the Democrats party, Yair Golan, at HaMesila park in Tel Aviv, earlier today, the party said. The security guards “subdued” the suspect before he could do anything, the party said in a statement. The suspect was subsequently arrested.

• The Central Elections Committee told reporters earlier that there had been no indication of widespread irregularities.

Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has continued to urge right-wing voters to go out and vote, claiming that if they don’t then a new government will be formed with parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel.

“Buses are heading to the polling stations, and huge lines are being reported in the Arab settlements,” he wrote in a social media post that appears as if it is part of a scare campaign.

“If we don’t go out to vote now, we’ll find ourselves with a government of the Arab parties. We must not stay home. Every vote counts!”

The Central Elections Committee told journalists earlier today that there had been no indication of widespread irregularities.

In an earlier post, we mentioned that, as of 10am local time, turnout in the Israeli general election was at its highest point at that stage of voting since 1981.

We now have some more figures from the Central Elections Committee, which appear to confirm the trend, with the new data showing that 31.5% of Israelis voted by noon, the highest voter turnout by midday since 1977.

In the settlement of Efrat near Jerusalem, Shani, 19, had come to the polling station with her parents, to cast her vote for the far-right party of finance minister Bezalel Smotrich.

She is part of a large cohort of first-time voters who are more rightwing than older generations, and may help bolster support for Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners.

More than 500,000 Israelis have reached voting age since the last election in 2022, and three-quarters of first-time Jewish voters define themselves as right or centre-right, a recent poll for Channel 12 television found (it did not survey Palestinian citizens of Israel).

Shani said she chose Smotrich, a settler himself, for his promises to expand Israel’s footprint in occupied Palestine. “Smotrich is pushing forward with settlement expansion and improving security,” she said.

Her mother, kindergarten teacher Rivka, also voted for Smotrich, and said her priority was to return Netanyahu’s coalition to office.

“The right must win, because otherwise there is a chance of a Palestinian state, which will be very bad for Jews,” she said. Her husband Motti, who runs a healthcare standup had voted directly for Netanyahu. “He’s a diplomat, he’s strong. He’s got whatever leadership should have.”

Spiralling attacks by militant Israeli settlers on Palestinians, and the growing threat of sanctions on settlement goods and construction, were not a key election issue for voters in Efrat who spoke to the Guardian.

Software engineer, Yitzchak Schwarz, 36 is an activist for far-right libertarian Moshe Feiglin, running on a joint slate with Smotrich for this election. “If there are sanctions, it’s going to hurt a bit, but we have to think about our own survival and our own national rights,” he said.

Sue and Tom Rosenfelt, who have lived in Efrat for over 30 years and have three sons in the reserves, said national unity and the unequal burden of military service are their main concerns. “I think that at this point getting another foothold and another hilltop isn’t the thing that’s going to strengthen the country as a whole,” Tom said. “We need to work more on unity.”

In an election which many Israelis describe as critical, turnout was so high at their polling station at a school in Efrat that they had left the long lines, and planned to come back later.

Both plan to vote for the party of Naftali Bennett, a rightwing settler and tech multimillionaire, who joined forces with centrist Yair Lapid. “I feel like this is a time when we need to come together,” Sue Rosenfeld said. “You know, Bennett and Lapid are on different sides of the spectrum, but they’ve come together and that’s something I want to support.”

There has been a suspected attempted stabbing of the leader of the Democrats party, Yair Golan, at HaMesila park in Tel Aviv, the party has said in a statement.

During a voter mobilisation tour, the party said “an unidentified man wearing a jacket” approached Golan in a “threatening manner”.

A statement from the party read:

Golan’s security guards blocked the man, and as they moved toward him, a large knife slipped from beneath his clothing and fell to the ground.

The security guards immediately subdued him before he could do anything. Police were called to the scene and arrested the suspect.

In a statement, Golan said:

“Incitement and violence will not deter us. This is the direct result of the poison machine operated by Netanyahu and his Qatari agents. I call on everyone who cares about security and democracy to go out and vote now, so that we can ensure the country we love so dearly becomes a free and safe place once again.”

Golan fought a long legal battle to get security protection from the Shin Bet security service. They only resumed responsibility for his security on Monday, the day before the elections.