Yair Lapid, leader of Israel’s Yesh Atid party, addresses supporters from his campaign headquarters in Tel Aviv after the end of voting
Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party won the most votes, boosting his chances of building a coalition with a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
Netanyahu, 71, Israel’s longest serving premier after 12 years in power, had hoped that Tuesday’s election would finally allow him to unite a stable right-wing coalition behind him, after three inconclusive elections since 2019.
Netanyahu, known as Bibi, also ran on his credentials as a hawkish guarantor of Israeli security who scored the diplomatic coup of establishing relations with several Arab states late last year.
This leaves both camps short of the 61 seats required to build a government and in search of more partners.
Bennett, a multi-millionaire former high-tech entrepreneur who made a name in politics with hardline religious-nationalist rhetoric, has so far not declared which way he will jump.
But Abbas has not ruled out joining the premier, telling Israeli radio on Wednesday that he was “prepared to engage” with either camp.
Netanyahu on election night said he would welcome all comers to a future coalition.
Read the article in NTNews (AFP).