Early turnout in Israel vote highest since 1981 as Netanyahu faces crucial test

Israelis flocked to the polls on Tuesday for the first time since Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack, with a deeply divided electorate delivering their verdict on veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country's rightward drift.

Israelis are casting their ballots in the shadow of three years of multi-front regional wars triggered by October 7, with the trauma still fresh and questions over accountability and security central to the campaign.

Turnout in the first three hours of the election was the highest at that stage since 1981, with the Central Elections Committee giving a figure of 16.68 percent.

The close-fought vote comes as Israel looks increasingly isolated on the world stage, driven by its devastating military campaign in Gaza, soaring settlement construction and violence in the occupied West Bank, and a move towards hard-right religious nationalism.

The last opinion polls to be published showed Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, running neck and neck with his main rival Gadi Eisenkot, a centrist political novice and former military chief whose mild manner is seen as the antithesis of the incumbent.

"I want change in our country," Alexandra, 65, told AFP at a Jerusalem polling station, where a few dozen people waited to vote in the morning.

"What bothers me most is the division amongst the people."

Some 7.3 million people are eligible to vote, with hundreds of thousands of young people due to cast their ballot for the first time. Surveys show they overwhelmingly identify as center-right or right-wing.

Tens of thousands of Israelis are estimated to have flown in from abroad to vote in an election seen as crucial to deciding the future character of their country.

Eilana Zisblit, 55, told AFP she had travelled back from Canada where she has lived for almost 30 years in order "to make a change", voting for a center-right party in Eisenkot's bloc.

"The country is going in a really, really bad direction. Both for Jews and Arabs living in the country, and for Jews living abroad," she said.

Zisblit said this was the first time she had come back to Israel to vote.

"It feels like this is the money time. Like, it's now, or the country really won't survive anymore."

- 'Not afraid to take action' -

Netanyahu, 77, has served as Israel's prime minister on and off for more than 19 years.

The wily political operator focused heavily on his security credentials during his campaign, playing up his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump and insisting he is the only one who can keep Israelis safe.

In the years since October 7, Netanyahu led multiple wars that have seen Israeli forces reduce Gaza to rubble, occupy southern Lebanon and for the first time pummel arch-foe Iran with US help.

At home, Israelis have faced bombardment from Iran, Hamas, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthi rebels.

Zipporah Bennett, an 85-year-old retiree, said she was voting for Netanyahu "because he has had the experience of navigating the country through a lot of difficult seasons", praising his support from the U.S. and adding: "He's a man who's not afraid to take action."

Netanyahu returned to power in December 2022, bringing into his coalition far-right ultra-nationalists who have since seen their political clout skyrocket.

- Opposition bloc -

One of the biggest criticisms levelled at the premier is his failure to take responsibility for October 7, the deadliest day in the country's history.

Eisenkot, 66, has pledged to establish an independent state commission of inquiry into the security failures that led to the attack, something Netanyahu's government has resisted.

Seeking to unseat the premier is an informal bloc of parties led by Eisenkot's Yashar and spanning from the right to the center-left -- including former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, as well as seasoned politician Avigdor Lieberman and left-leaning Yair Golan.

Neither Eisenkot nor Netanyahu has publicly said they would partner with the predominantly Arab lists, which represent some 21 percent of Israel's population and who could become kingmakers if the results are as close as expected.

Yousef Jabareen, who heads one of the Arab-majority lists, told AFP he hoped for a high turnout among his community to help topple Netanyahu's coalition, after voting in the northern town of Umm al Fahm.

Most polling stations will close at 10:00 pm (2000 GMT).

Final results could take days to trickle in and it is highly unlikely that any single party will come close to the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-member parliament.

Cobbling together any coalition could take weeks or months, with possible new elections on the horizon if negotiations fail.