JERUSALEM, Oct 27: Israel heads to the polls on Tuesday in its first election since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack, in what is seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Some seven million Israelis will be eligible to vote.
Here are the main parties competing for seats in the parliament, or Knesset, among the 38 in total that originally registered, before two dropped out of the race.
- Likud ('Consolidation'), right -
Leader: Netanyahu.
Current parliamentary seats: 32 (out of 120).
Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving prime minister, having held the position for more than 19 years since he was first elected in 1996.
The US-raised Netanyahu, 77, is known as a wily political operator and savvy coalition builder, but in most polls Likud is running slightly behind.
He has faced heavy criticism for not preventing Hamas's October 7 attack, the deadliest in Israeli history. He has since launched massive military operations across the region including with the United States against Iran.
- Yashar ('Upright'), centre
Leader: Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot.
Current parliamentary seats: None
Eisenkot, who served in a national unity government with Netanyahu after the October 7 attack, has been on top of recent polls asking who could beat Netanyahu.
The dry-spoken former military chief founded Yashar in 2025 with a stated mission to unite Israelis after the sharp divisions under Netanyahu.
He has brought together veteran figures from the right and to a lesser extent the left, and vowed to end an exemption from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews, a policy backed by Netanyahu that is resented by many secular Israelis.
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- Beyahad ('Together'), centre-right -
Leader: Former prime minister Naftali Bennett.
Current parliamentary seats: None as Beyahad, but ally party Yesh Atid has 24.
Beyahad is an alliance between Bennett, a businessman and son of US immigrants, and Yair Lapid, a former journalist initially seen as to Bennett's left. The two paired up to form a short-lived 2021-2022 government united largely by opposition to Netanyahu.
Bennett is a devout Jew once affiliated with the West Bank settler movement but has cast himself in the latest election as a secular centrist.
- HaDemokratim ('The Democrats'), left -
Leader: Former deputy military chief of staff Yair Golan.
Current number of parliamentary seats: Four.
Golan has brought together remnants of Labour, the socialist movement that led Israel for decades after its founding, and the left-wing Meretz, which failed to pass the threshold for seats in the last election in 2022.
The Democrats are the only party other than the Arabs and communists that support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
- Shas ('Sephardic Guardians'), ultra-Orthodox -
Leader: Former minister Aryeh Deri.
Current parliamentary seats: 11
Shas was founded in 1984 to represent Sephardic Jewish voters, who trace their origins to the Middle East and North Africa, and has been closely allied with Netanyahu.
The party claims to represent Israel's poorest and has pressed hard against ultra-Orthodox conscription.
- Otzma Yehudit ('Jewish Power'), far-right -
Leader: National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Current parliamentary seats: Six.
Netanyahu brought into his government the far-right party, once shunned as too extreme.
Ben Gvir has repeatedly prompted international outrage with calls for violence. He recently said Israel should kill 30 to 40 Palestinians nightly in Gaza.
- HaTzionut HaDatit ('Religious Zionism'), far-right -
Leader: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Current parliamentary seats: Seven.
Also a far-right member of the government, the party advocates the annexation of all of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, with Smotrich using his position as finance minister to advance settlements and deny tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority.
- Yahadut HaTorah HaMeuhedet ('UTJ / United Torah Judaism'), Ashkenazi Ultra-Orthodox -
Leader: Yaakov Asher
Current parliamentary seats: Seven
Representing religious Ashkenazi Jews, who are of European descent, the party also fights to prevent conscription of religious students.
- Yisrael Beiteinu ('Israel, Our Home'), secular right -
Leader: Former defence, foreign and finance minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Current parliamentary seats: Six.
Lieberman, Netanyahu's former chief of staff, takes a hard line on the Palestinians but is strictly secular. He draws support from Jews who immigrated from the former Soviet Union.
- Raam ('United Arab List'), moderate Islamist -
Leader: Mansour Abbas.
Current parliamentary seats: Five.
Despite its roots in political Islam, Raam became first Arab party to join an Israeli government in the 2021-2022 coalition and it can again play a kingmaker role this year.
In an unprecedented step, its candidates for the upcoming election include an Israeli Jew, former police official Yoav Segalovitz.
Party leader Mansour Abbas advocates for equal rights for Israel's Arab minority, who make up about 20 percent of the population.
- Joint List, far-left -
Leader: Yousef Jabareen.
Current parliamentary seats: Five.
The far-left list is made up of the Arab-Jewish communist party Hadash and the Arab nationalist parties Taal and Balad. It supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
- Amcha Israel ('Your People, Israel'), far-right
Former military commander Ofer Winter has started a new far-right party that differs from its fellow travellers by backing conscription of all Israelis.
