Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, has announced that national elections will be held on the 27th of October this year. The election is widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership since the start of the war in Gaza.

 

The Knesset is set to hold the final sitting of its current term on Friday, making Netanyahu’s coalition government the first in nearly five decades to complete a full four-year term. In a statement, the Knesset said there was no proposal to dissolve the Parliament before the completion of its term, as the election date has already been announced.

 

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving Prime Minister, confirmed in June that he would contest the upcoming elections. The 76-year-old has faced mounting criticism since the Hamas-led attacks on the 7th of October, 2023, the deadliest in Israel’s history. Critics have accused Netanyahu of security lapses that allegedly allowed Hamas militants to breach Israel’s border defences and take 251 people hostage.

 

Former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot has emerged as Netanyahu’s principal challenger. According to a poll published on Thursday by Israeli broadcaster Channel 13, Eisenkot’s Yashar Party holds a narrow lead over Netanyahu’s Likud Party.

 

Eisenkot, who previously served in Netanyahu’s war cabinet, resigned in June 2024, saying that the government had failed to achieve its objectives in Gaza.