Five key takeaways from Israel’s parliamentary elections

Exit polls from Israel’s election show a neck-and-neck race between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, with neither likely to secure a clear path to a governing majority. Tuesday’s vote was largely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership and response to the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent genocidal war on Gaza. It also came as Israel’s pogroms in the occupied West Bank have escalated, and amid mounting tensions with several of its neighbours, many of whom it has attacked in the past three years.