Exit polls trigger heated debate across Israeli political divide

Israeli political leaders have traded sharp reactions to exit poll projections showing no clear winner between the country’s main political blocs. Updated figures broadcast by Israel’s Channel 13 showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-led coalition tied at 51 seats with the opposition bloc led by challenger Gadi Eisenkot in the 120-seat Knesset. Despite narrower exit poll figures, opposition leaders insisted the result was a defeat for the government. Eisenkot, head of the Yashar party and a former military chief of staff, told supporters after voting closed that the initial projections showed a “complete lack of confidence in Netanyahu and the October 7 government”, according to the AFP news agency.