Netanyahu, rival each claim mandate after tight Israel election

JERUSALEM, Oct 28: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rival Gadi Eisenkot each vowed on Wednesday to form a government after both came up short in the first election since the October 7, 2023 attack traumatised the country.

Voters turned out Tuesday in the highest numbers in decades to give their verdict on the divisive rule of Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister who has pushed the country sharply to the right and unleashed a wave of wars in response to the Hamas attack.

Exit polls showed Eisenkot, a former military chief and political novice, and his opposition bloc neck and neck with Netanyahu's hard-right camp and both well away from the threshold for a majority in parliament.

The strongest gains came from Arab Israeli parties whose voters turned out in soaring numbers against Netanyahu, who has relentlessly warned that the minority would dilute the Jewish nationalist direction in which he has taken Israel.

Netanyahu, greeting cheering supporters at a Jerusalem convention centre after 3:00 am (0100 GMT), called for a "strong government of the right" and said that the "Jewish and Zionist majority must unite".�" AFP