Israel will hold parliamentary elections on 27 October, the first since Hamas carried out an attack on 7 October 2023 in which nearly 1,200 people were killed, the Guardian reports. Voters will for the first time in three years of war assess Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition.
The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, will be dissolved on Friday. According to the Guardian, the governing coalition is using its final days in session to pass several controversial laws. Among them is a proposal to divide and weaken the powers of the State Attorney, and a law declaring the study of the Torah a “fundamental value” and equating it with military service. The latter is interpreted as a step towards exempting ultra-Orthodox Jews from military conscription.
After the election date was confirmed on Sunday, coalition MPs were ordered to remain in Jerusalem until Friday, Israeli media report.
Netanyahu, aged 76, is simultaneously a defendant in a long-running corruption trial, and US President Donald Trump has previously called for his pardon. Polls currently suggest the prime minister could lose power, although he has repeatedly disproven such predictions throughout his three-decade political career.
His main rival is considered to be Gadi Eisenkot, former Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defence Forces, whose son and two nephews were killed in fighting in Gaza. According to a poll commissioned by Kan News, his party Yashar overtook Netanyahu’s Likud for the first time this week: if elections were held now, it would win 24 seats compared to Likud’s 23.
Netanyahu has placed national security at the centre of the campaign, arguing that only he can guarantee the safety of Israelis. The Guardian notes that he would become the first Israeli prime minister in decades to complete a full term. Due to complex coalition dynamics, early elections are the norm in Israel, with the last ones held on a regular schedule in 1988.
