LatestHere’s the latest.Israelis headed to the polls in large numbers on Tuesday in an election that many see as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. By midday, five hours after polls had opened, voter turnout was 31.5 percent, higher by that time than in any Israeli general election since the 1970s, according to the Central Elections Committee.The election is Israel’s first since the Hamas-led attacks on Oct.

7, 2023, upended the nation and ignited three years of war. It also has the potential to be one of the most consequential in the country’s history.

Voters have a choice between two blocs offering starkly different visions. Mr.

Netanyahu is seeking re-election at the helm of the most far-right government in Israeli history. His coalition of nationalists and ultra-Orthodox Jews faces a fractious group of opposition parties loosely led by Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff whose son was killed in the Gaza war.Both sides are framing the election as a make-or-break moment for the country.

Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition offers the promise of a more religious Israel with an ever-tighter grip over the West Bank and Gaza.

His opponents are casting the vote as the last chance to preserve democracy and pull Israel back from the brink of becoming a pariah state under international sanctions.Voting will close at 10 p.m., but is unlikely to deliver an immediate verdict on who will be the next prime minister. Opinion polls suggest that Mr.

Netanyahu’s allies and rivals are roughly tied, and assembling a governing coalition in Israel’s parliamentary system could take weeks or months.Opposition leaders led by Mr. Eisenkot have called for a reckoning over what they call Mr.

Netanyahu’s failure to prevent the catastrophic Oct. 7 attacks.

They also have pledged to repair Israel’s shattered image abroad, including by cracking down on Israeli extremist violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.Mr. Netanyahu has resisted the establishment of an independent commission to investigate the Oct.

7 attacks. He has vowed to move ahead with overhauling Israel’s judicial system, a move that critics say could undermine the country’s liberal democracy.

And his allies say they will keep tightening Israel’s grip on the West Bank and Gaza despite international condemnation.The 77-year-old leader has dominated Israeli politics for decades. In recent days, he repeatedly suggested that the country could face annihilation without him in charge.Here’s what else to watch:Key issues: In a tumultuous campaign, several issues divided Israeli voters.

Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza cannot vote in Israeli elections, but they may have much to lose if Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition stays in power.

Netanyahu nor his opponents are likely to win an easy victory. The possibilities range from a fragile coalition to a minority government to another round of elections.

Netanyahu, praising him as an important partner in the war against Iran and saying anyone else would be the “wrong leader” for Israel. Analysts were skeptical that the U.S. president’s intervention would sway many voters.Why parties with dim prospects get so much airtime in Israel.ImageIsraeli flags hanging outside a shop in Jerusalem, as the country prepares for national elections.Credit...Kevin Coombs/ReutersIsraelis voting on Tuesday will encounter a smorgasbord of ballot slips printed with the initials and names of no less than 36 parties in the election.The majority have no chance of making it into the 120-seat Parliament — but a quirk of the Israeli election system ensures that even the most obscure contenders get their moment in the political limelight.While parties are barred from buying television time in Israel, they are entitled to seven minutes of free airtime on each of the main television and radio channels — with extra time for every seat that a party holds in the outgoing Parliament.

Nightly blocks of election broadcasts, which can run for almost an hour in the two weeks before the ballot, have been a mainstay of campaigns since television arrived here in the 1960s.The campaign features about a dozen larger parties that are expected to meet, or come close to, the four-seat minimum threshold to enter Parliament.But every Israeli election also includes an array of esoteric parties run by a gamut of characters from would-be messiahs to pranksters. Of the 38 parties that registered with Israel’s Central Elections Committee, two have since dropped out.The Pirate Party of Israel has been running in Israeli elections since 2012 on a platform that calls for civil liberties in the digital age as well as free internet and “peace between all the people who live here.” For this election, the party has Dan Ariely — an Israeli American behavioral economist and best-selling author — running in the third slot of its optimistically expansive 24-person slate of candidates.Another party, Sharshar for Love and Unity, is led by Eitan Shvili, who cosplays a monarch called King Sharshar in full royal regalia complete with a bejeweled crown and a blue cape.

His bid for the premiership, clearly a long shot, comes with a promise of a free theater ticket for every Israeli adult.Gan Eden, or Paradise, party wants to build a society based on peace, justice, freedom and plenty. The party has called for reforming the education system to better connect it with spirituality, removing taxes on basic goods and also promoting dialogue between Jews, Muslims, Christians and other communities — a worthy cause but not one that is likely to carry this party of relative unknowns into the Parliament.There’s also the Everlasting Covenant for the Salvation of Israel party, which calls for a constitution based on the Torah; and the Bible Bloc, a Jewish-Christian party whose leader, Avi Dennis Lipkin, warns from his living room that Israel must prepare to take in 10 million Jews and non-Jews because of an impending holocaust abroad.And in what could be seen as a cynical use of the democratic process, the wife and the mother of the Israeli extremist who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 are leading a party calling for his release from prison.

The assassin, Yigal Amir, is serving a life sentence. Israel passed a law in 2001 barring the commutation of a sentence of anyone convicted of assassinating a prime minister, ensuring that Mr.

Amir would not be paroled.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTTel Aviv has long been a stronghold for the center left, but I’m in a politically diverse part of town where voters have in previous elections been more evenly divided between support for Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and the opposition.VideoLia LapidotReporting from JerusalemGadi Eisenkot, a former Israeli military chief of staff, joined the list of top candidates to cast their ballots on Tuesday. He voted in Herzliya, a northern suburb of Tel Aviv, his party’s spokesman said.ImageCredit...Shir Torem/ReutersAaron Boxerman and Lia LapidotBenjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, has been urging his right-wing base to vote by pointing to high turnout among Arab citizens of Israel, suggesting they were “trying to steal the elections.” The Central Elections Committee told reporters earlier on Tuesday that there had been no indication of widespread irregularities, although the police did arrest three people suspected of attempting to bribe voters to support the Islamist Raam party.Netanyahu’s Likud party is pushing the same narrative.

It released a poster with a crowd of women in hijab, urging right-wing Israelis “not to stay home.” Netanyahu tried a similar tack in 2015, prodding supporters with the line that Arab voters were “heading to the polls in huge quantities.” Critics accused him of race baiting. He later apologized for any offense caused by the remark.On Tuesday, he repeated effectively the same slogan.

Netanyahu did a lot of big things, but I think he’s done his job. He’s had 20 years in this chair.

He can go now.Ayelet Veprinskiy, 25, a student in Jerusalem, who said she voted for Naftali Bennett’s Together partyImageCredit...David Halbfinger/The New York TimesAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTTwo other right-wing contenders could make a bid for prime minister.Naftali Bennett, left, and Avigdor Lieberman.Gadi Eisenkot, a former chief of staff for Israel’s military, will likely get the most votes of those hoping to succeed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a pivotal national election on Tuesday.But that doesn’t mean that only Mr. Eisenkot could lead a government that unseats the longtime leader.Depending on how Israel’s complex coalition-building process shakes out, at least two other veteran politicians could also find themselves vying for the prime minister’s chair: Avigdor Liberman, a hard-right former defense minister, and Naftali Bennett, a onetime prime minister who has fiercely argued in favor of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.Opinion polls in recent months have suggested that Mr.

Bennett’s party will secure around a dozen seats in Israel’s 120-member parliament, or Knesset, while Mr. Liberman’s will collect closer to eight. (Mr.

Eisenkot’s party could rack up over 20 seats, according to pre-election polls.)The political evolutions of Mr. Bennett and Mr.

Liberman offer a case study in how Mr. Netanyahu has polarized Israel during his long tenure.

The two men should be ideal political partners with the prime minister, as they share many of his hawkish views. Both have worked as advisers to Mr.

Netanyahu in the past and even campaigned on his behalf.Yet they have long since broken with the Israeli leader, and now accuse him of corruption, abuses of power and a willingness to cut deals with extremists in order to remain in charge. Mr.

Netanyahu is currently on trial for corruption in three separate but interlocking cases; he has denied all wrongdoing.A veteran of Israeli politics, Mr. Liberman was born in the Soviet Union and leads the right-wing Yisrael Beitenu party.

His base is among the hundreds of thousands of Russian-speaking Jews who similarly emigrated to Israel from the former Communist bloc.Mr. Liberman lives in the West Bank settlement of Nokdim, and takes a hard-line view on security issues.

At one point during the war in Gaza, Mr. Liberman called for Israel to halt all aid, including water, to Palestinians there, even as the enclave faced a humanitarian crisis.Mr.

Bennett served as prime minister from 2021 to 2022, during the sole hiatus in Mr. Netanyahu’s premiership since 2009.

Though his party secured only seven seats in parliament in the preceding election, Mr. Bennett leveraged the opposition’s desire to unseat Mr.

Netanyahu and he went from being kingmaker to king.In office, however, Mr. Bennett presided over a fragile, ideologically discordant coalition that ranged from his right-wing Yamina party to Raam, an Islamist party of Arab citizens of Israel.

Many of his voters saw his decision to join with left-wing and Arab parties as a betrayal, and as some of his own lawmakers defected, his government collapsed.Now, Mr. Bennett is running in alliance with Yair Lapid, a centrist who succeeded him as prime minister in the anti-Netanyahu government.

In addition to holding large campaign rallies, Mr. Bennett has released videos of himself holding lengthy, impromptu debates with right-wing voters in the streets and around cafe and restaurant tables.In this election, both Mr.

Liberman and Mr. Bennett have focused much of their campaign messaging on Israel’s ultra-Orthodox minority.The ultra-Orthodox population is 14 percent of Israel’s total but growing rapidly, and they receive far more state benefits than they contribute in taxes, thanks largely to Mr.

Netanyahu, who has relied on their support to stay in power. Ultra-Orthodox religious students are also largely exempt from mandatory military service.

During the war in Gaza, religious and secular Israelis alike were furious at what they saw as a powerful minority shirking the wartime burden.Mr. Bennett has promised to end what he calls an ultra-Orthodox “state within a state” and compel them to participate in national service.Mr.

Liberman, for his part, has inveighed against what he calls an ultra-Orthodox political push for “us to send our children to the army, to do reserve duty, to work, and pay taxes, while they build their own state.” He has accused them of “trying to dismantle the country.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara Netanyahu, cast their ballots in Jerusalem. Several other candidates have also voted.VideoTurnout continues to look strong.

About 31.5 percent of potential voters had cast ballots as of noon, the most by that time of day in an Israeli election since the 1970s, according to Dean Livne, acting director general of Israel’s Central Elections Committee. In 2022, when an election returned Benjamin Netanyahu to power, turnout at 12 p.m. stood at 28.4 percent, according to the committee.

Livne told reporters that long lines had been reported at some polling places and urged voters to be patient.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTIsrael’s most vocal far-right ministers diverge in this election.ImageThe far-right Israeli lawmakers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are not running on the same slate in this election.Credit...Pool photo by Maya AlleruzzoPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has led the country’s most right-wing government in recent years, with two ultranationalist ministers in particular pushing policies and positions that have exacerbated friction with many of the nation’s traditional allies.These politicians, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, who is also responsible for the administration of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, are vocal about expanding Jewish settlements on land that much of the international community considers illegally occupied and designated for a Palestinian state.But they are not in the same political party or always on the same page. In this election, they are not running on the same slate, unlike in the two previous votes.Mr.

Ben-Gvir leads Otzma Yehudit, or the Jewish Power party; and Mr. Smotrich heads the Religious Zionist party.

Mr. Smotrich’s party is running this year on a list with the Zehut, or Identity party, led by Moshe Feiglin, a former member of Mr.

Netanyahu’s Likud party.Mr. Ben-Gvir has refused Mr.

Netanyahu’s attempts to team him and Mr. Smotrich again in hopes of ensuring the parties clear the threshold of 3.25 percent of votes in Israel’s proportional parliamentary system so that the right-wing bloc does not lose any votes.

Mr. Smotrich had expressed reservations, as well.Polling shows Mr.

Ben-Gvir is popular with young voters, and he is betting he can secure more parliamentary seats for his party and exercise more power in negotiations to form a right-wing government after the election. He told Time magazine on Thursday that he, nevertheless, supports Mr.

Netanyahu and aims to push the next government further right.Mr. Ben-Gvir is so virulently nationalist that he was not drafted for the Israeli military in his youth.

His views were long considered fringe even by other right-wing politicians, like those in Mr. Smotrich’s party.In recent years, both ministers have gained power domestically and have become known internationally for inflammatory stances and actions.

After the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which ignited a devastating war in Gaza, both called for Israel to adopt destructive policies to encourage the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians.Amid the war, violence by extremist Jewish settlers in the West Bank spiked drastically, and both ministers were accused of encouraging impunity.

Last year, Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway imposed sanctions on Mr. Ben-Gvir and Mr.

Smotrich for “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities.”Israel has in recent years undertaken an unbridled expansion of Jewish settlements while military operations in the West Bank have resulted in the biggest displacement of Palestinian civilians in the territory since the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. Both Mr.

Smotrich and Mr. Ben Gvir want to accelerate these efforts.Mr.

Smotrich has pushed measures extending Israel’s footprint in the West Bank. This year, the security cabinet made it easier for Jews to buy land in parts of the West Bank, and Mr.

Smotrich was explicit about his intent. “We are deepening our roots in all parts of the Land of Israel and burying the idea of a Palestinian state,” he said.In the election, Mr. Netanyahu faces competition from former military general Ofer Winter, who formed a new right-wing party, People of Israel.

Recent polling shows the party is drawing support from Likud even as the opposition presents a significant challenge.And Gadi Eisenkot, a former Israeli military chief who lost a son and two nephews in the war in Gaza, is the leading candidate against Mr. Netanyahu.Israelis don’t vote for a prime minister individually, but for a list of candidates presented by a party or parties.

The premiership does not automatically go to the party with the most votes, and much more wrangling is needed before it becomes clear who the next leader will be.Last year, Mr. Eisenkot formed the party Yashar! — Hebrew for “straight” or “honest” — and has said that he will not serve on a government with Mr.

Netanyahu. He says he is running to “save Israel” from endless wars and policies dividing Israelis and destroying its international standing, as well as from Mr.

Netanyahu. Polling in the days ahead of the election shows Mr.

Eisenkot’s party with a slight lead over Likud, potentially securing more seats in the Knesset, or Parliament, than the prime minister’s party.But the Israeli electoral system is complicated and no party has ever won a majority of seats in the Knesset, so there has been much debate and deal-making to build potential future governing coalitions ahead of the vote, and they will continue after the results are in.The Henrietta Szold school in the Rehavia section of Jerusalem, which Benjamin Netanyahu attended as a child, is a polling station. Nearby, the streets are plastered with campaign signs and volunteers are out electioneering in force.VideoLook back at 5 key moments from the campaign.ImageNaftali Bennett, left, and Yair Lapid announced in April that they would join forces in the hope of ousting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But polls have suggested that their new party is likely to finish third.Credit...Gideon Markowitz/ReutersPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff, have emerged as the top candidates to form the next government in Israel after the general election on Tuesday, the country’s first since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks set off the war in Gaza.

But other candidates have brought their own drama to the campaign, which has also featured revelations about security failures and a furor over an A.I.-generated political ad.Here are some key moments from the campaign.An Alliance UnderwhelmsBefore Election Day had even been set, the opposition politicians Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, both former prime ministers, announced a joint run for office. The two men have worked together before: They briefly unseated Mr.

Netanyahu in 2021, forming a government that lasted less than two years.Their announcement in April was seen as mutually beneficial, positioning Mr. Bennett as a candidate for prime minister and ensuring that Mr.

Lapid would remain one of the most prominent figures in the anti-Netanyahu bloc.But their ambition to make their unified party, B’Yachad, the largest in the Knesset quickly fizzled. Surveys consistently suggest the party will finish in third place.An A.I.

Video Sparks AngerParties across Israel’s political spectrum have published A.I.-generated content to reinforce their messaging. The content has sometimes stirred up controversy — no more so than in July, when Mr.

Netanyahu posted a video depicting Mr. Eisenkot.In the video, Mr.

Eisenkot is shown running through a meadow, arms open, toward a man with a striking resemblance to his late son Gal, who was killed in 2023 at the start of the Israeli military’s war in Gaza. But he runs past the young man, instead embracing Mansour Abbas, a prominent Arab politician.

Mr. Netanyahu has sought to paint Mr.

Abbas, who could help Mr. Eisenkot form a governing coalition, as a supporter of terrorism.Mr.

Netanyahu’s party, Likud, denied that the young man in the video looked like Mr. Eisenkot’s son or was meant to evoke him.

But many Israelis reacted to the ad with anger and disgust. Matan Kahana, a former lawmaker running on Mr.

Eisenkot’s slate, said there was “no bottom to the pit the Likud is willing to sink into.”An Unexpected PartnershipImageMansour Abbas, left, and Yoav Segalovitz at a Raam campaign event in Sakhnin, Israel, in September.Credit...Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York TimesOne of the campaign’s most surprising moments came when Mr. Abbas and Yoav Segalovitz, a veteran Zionist politician and former police commander, announced a joint run.

Teaming up on the slate of the United Arab List, or Raam, they offered themselves as an example of Jewish-Arab cooperation, even as they braced for intense criticism from both of their communities.“There are people who are afraid of partnership,” Mr. Abbas said. “There are parties that are afraid of partnership.

They are afraid of what people will say, afraid of what they will lose. Raam is not afraid of partnership.

Raam advances it.”A Warning IgnoredMr. Netanyahu came under new pressure over reports in the Israeli media and in The New York Times that Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the president of the United Arab Emirates, had warned him in advance of Oct.

7, 2023, that Hamas was considering a major attack on Israel.The warning from Sheikh Mohammed never reached the leaders of Israel’s security establishment, The Times reported, citing five former senior Israeli officials. Mr.

Netanyahu has denied the reports.The FlyDubai AttackIsraelis seemed to forget the election for a day in late September, when the news emerged that a handful of their fellow citizens had stopped a pilot from crashing a FlyDubai commercial jet bound for Tel Aviv.Mr. Netanyahu spent hours celebrating the passengers’ resourcefulness, diverting attention away from headlines at the time about his and other officials’ failure to stop the Hamas-led attack in 2023.Within days, however, his government was on the defensive over revelations of security failures that had allowed the FlyDubai pilot, an Omani man said to have embraced extreme Islamist views, into the cockpit in the first place.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTInitial signs are that voter turnout is strong.

As of 10 a.m., three hours after polls opened, turnout was 16.7 percent, compared to 15.9 percent at the same point in the last general election, in 2022, according to the Central Elections Committee.ImageCredit...Erik Marmor/Getty ImagesHere are the issues dividing Israeli voters.ImageUltra-Orthodox Israelis protesting military conscription for members of their community in Jerusalem last year.Credit...David Guttenfelder/The New York TimesFour years of internal turmoil, war and growing global isolation have left Israelis bitterly divided over their country’s future as they vote in national elections on Tuesday. Opinion polls suggest it will be a close race with the possibility that neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party nor his opponents will secure a majority.Many Israelis see the election as choice over whether to continue the rule of the country’s most hard-line, right-wing government ever, and the dominant fault line is Mr.

Netanyahu himself. Critics say he has steered Israel to the lowest point in its history, while his supporters see him as an indispensable leader who has tried to destroy Israel’s enemies in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.Beyond Mr.

Netanyahu’s leadership, however, there are plenty of issues polarizing the country.Accountability for the Oct. 7 attacksThe Hamas-led attacks of Oct.

7, 2023, loom over the vote. About 1,200 Israelis were killed in the assault and 250 were seized as hostages, according to the Israeli authorities, making it the deadliest day in Israeli history.Israel’s military response in Gaza leveled much of the enclave and killed more than 70,000 people, according to local officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Most of the enclave’s two million residents were displaced, often multiple times.Three years later, Israelis still have no official answer about why Mr. Netanyahu’s government and the Israeli military failed to foresee the attacks and then struggled to respond even as Hamas fighters invaded villages and a music festival, killing civilians.Mr.

Netanyahu’s opponents — a bloc of opposition parties and their leaders — have said they would establish an independent inquiry with broad authority, appointed by the president of the Supreme Court. Mr.

Netanyahu has called for a “democratic and equitable” commission that would be made of an equal number of representatives of the coalition and the opposition.Families of those killed and taken hostage broadly back the opposition, arguing that Mr. Netanyahu’s proposal would politicize what should be a comprehensive and dispassionate investigation.The ultra-Orthodox minoritySecular and liberal Israelis have long been uneasy about the status of the ultra-Orthodox, an insular community that adheres to a fundamentalist interpretation of Jewish scripture and makes up roughly 14 percent of the population.

Their religious students are eligible for an exemption from mandatory military service and receive state benefits despite not joining the work force.During the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, that long-simmering frustration boiled over into outrage. Hundreds of Israelis from other backgrounds were killed in combat, and hundreds of thousands more did dangerous rounds of reserve duty.Mr.

Netanyahu’s government has relied heavily on the support of ultra-Orthodox parties. His opponents have called for ending the exemption to the draft for the ultra-Orthodox and cutting off welfare benefits for those who avoid military service.Judicial overhaulBefore the war, Mr.

Netanyahu’s government had sought to advance a highly contentious plan to weaken Israel’s judiciary. Critics, including the president of Israel’s Supreme Court, argued that it would fundamentally undermine Israeli democracy.Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested the proposals in mass demonstrations, saying that Mr.

Netanyahu was leading the country toward dictatorship.The Hamas-led attacks largely suspended the overhaul, part of which was also reversed by a Supreme Court ruling. But Mr.

Netanyahu’s allies say they will push ahead with the changes if they are re-elected.The PalestiniansWhile global attention has focused on the West Bank and Gaza, domestically both Mr. Netanyahu and his opponents have preferred to focus elsewhere.

Mr. Netanyahu and most of his leading rivals say they oppose giving the Palestinians an independent state.They still offer different visions for the near future.Mr.

Netanyahu’s coalition is dominated by religious nationalists who have advanced Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank at a breakneck pace. They have called for Israel to urge Palestinians to leave Gaza, with one senior minister saying conditions there should be kept miserable to “take away their hope.”The fractious bloc of parties opposing Mr.

Netanyahu hold wildly diverging views on the Palestinians. They include the left-wing Democrats party, whose members generally support a two-state solution but would have limited influence in a future coalition.Gadi Eisenkot, who opinion polls suggest will lead the alliance, has vowed to rein in Israeli extremist attacks on Palestinians and engage on the Trump administration’s cease-fire plan for Gaza.

But Mr. Eisenkot also supports some Israeli settlements in the West Bank and has even attacked Mr.

Netanyahu for having once supported a Palestinian state.Voters trickled into a hillside polling station in Wadi Nisnas, a predominantly Arab neighborhood in the northern coastal city of Haifa.In short interviews, four people said they hoped to help oust Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, and usher in cooperation between Israel’s Arab and Jewish communities.“We’re voting for our future,” said Yousef Habib, 44, a real estate appraiser. “I worry that if we have another extremist government, the country will crumble.”He said he intended to vote for the Joint List, one of two major Arab parties running in the elections, and he expressed hope Arab and Jewish politicians would form a government together.ImageCredit...Adam Rasgon/The New York TimesAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTFamilies affected by the attacks on Oct. 7 held a moment of silence at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv ahead of the opening of polling stations.

Many Israelis blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for failing to prevent the attacks, while former hostages and their families have accused it of mishandling efforts to secure the hostages’ release.VideoCreditCredit...Associated PressMore than 7.3 million people are eligible to vote in the election today, including some 630,000 estimated to be living overseas. Israel does not allow most citizens to vote absentee from abroad, so many were expected to fly in, including thousands living in the United States.Gadi Eisenkot, a former Israeli military chief, joined the list of top candidates to cast their ballots.

He voted in Herzliya, a northern suburb of Tel Aviv, his party’s spokesman said.ImageCredit...Amir Cohen/ReutersWhat to know about the high-stakes election.ImageCampaign billboards featuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gadi Eisenkot this month in Kiryat Malachi, Israel.Credit...Amir Cohen/ReutersIsraelis are heading to the polls on Tuesday to vote in what many say could be one of the most consequential elections in the country’s 78-year history.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the country’s longest-serving leader, his party and his governing coalition have been locked in a tight contest in the country’s first election since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault that ignited Israel’s devastating war in Gaza.Every party creates a ranked list of its candidates, and voters choose a party or slate.

The leader of the party with the most votes could become the country’s next prime minister — though it is not automatic — if that candidate can form a government, but the parliamentary system is complicated and involves extensive negotiations.Here’s what to know.What happens on Election Day?Election Day is a public holiday in Israel, with schools, government offices and many public services closed. In most of the country, polls are scheduled to open at 7 a.m. local time and close at 10 p.m., with hours slightly reduced in some small communities, hospitals and prisons.Voters are assigned to a polling station near their registered residence and may vote only at that location.

There are exceptions for soldiers, people with limited mobility and prisoners, among others.All Israeli citizens 18 or older who are registered to vote may do so with a valid identification, such as a passport, driver’s license or Israeli identification card. Israel’s Arab citizens, who make up about 20 percent of the population, could play a significant role in the vote, depending on turnout.Unlike many democracies, Israel does not have a postal or proxy voting system, and most citizens cannot cast an absentee vote from abroad.What’s on the ballot?Israel’s electoral system uses nationwide proportional representation.

Elections to the Knesset, Israel’s 120-seat Parliament, are held at least every four years, though they can happen more often. In 2022, Israeli elections were held for the fifth time in three years after the Knesset dissolved itself.Israelis cast a single ballot for a list of candidates affiliated with a party.

A party receives a number of seats proportional to the national vote it got. To gain a place in Parliament, however, a party or must receive at least 3.25 percent of the valid votes.

About 10 parties are expected to clear that electoral threshold.Official election results are expected by Nov. 4.How is a government formed?No single party has ever won a majority of votes, which means parties must form factions and party leaders try to forge a governing coalition of at least 61 lawmakers.Within seven days of the official election results being announced, Israel’s president, who plays a mostly symbolic role, meets with elected representatives of the parliamentary factions.Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, will assign a member of the Knesset — usually the leader of the party or faction that has won the most seats — to form a government.

That candidate then has 28 days to negotiate with other factions and forge alliances to form a government, which must be approved by the Knesset in a vote of confidence. That person can request a 14-day extension to the deadline.If that effort fails, the president can select another candidate who also has 28 days to try to form a government.

If that second attempt fails, a majority of Knesset members can ask the president to have a third candidate try. That person would be granted 14 days to form a government, and if that failed, new elections would be announcedIf a candidate who has been selected to form a government can propose one, along with a policy agenda, and their proposal wins a plurality of votes in the Knesset, the government is formally invested, and that candidate becomes the prime minister.

Technically, the law allows for a minority government if the relative majority supporting it is larger than the minority opposing, but governments established after elections have almost always enjoyed the confidence of a majority of Knesset members, at least 61.Historically, it has taken about 20 to 100 days to form a government, and no government has been sworn in less than 50 days after an election, according to the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Israel.Who are the top contenders?Different polls in the week ahead of the election have suggested different outcomes, which is “very problematic for political scientists,” said Assaf Shapira, who heads political research at the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Israel.Many Israelis consider this election to be a referendum on Mr. Netanyahu’s leadership.

Mr. Netanyahu and his Likud party, and their hard-right allies, are in a close race with Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff who heads the opposition coalition led by the Yashar party and has emerged as Mr.

Netanyahu’s top challenger.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTHere’s who’s running.ImageA campaign event in Jerusalem last month for the Likud party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Credit...Ronen Zvulun/ReutersIsrael’s political parties have finalized their candidate slates ahead of a general election on Oct. 27, which many Israelis and outside observers consider to be the most consequential vote in the country’s history.The campaign so far has been dominated by a battle between Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s polarizing prime minister, and Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff who leads the largest opposition party.

Polls show that neither man’s bloc has yet gained the support of a decisive majority of voters, and there is no guarantee that either of them will be the next prime minister.The result is an unpredictable race, with profound implications for Israelis and the millions of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, as well as for the country’s regional conflicts, its international relations and the Jewish diaspora.About a dozen parties are expected to clear the electoral threshold to make it into Israel’s 120-seat Parliament, the Knesset. The real political wrangling begins after the election, when party leaders will try to forge a governing coalition of at least 61 lawmakers.The leading contendersLikud (Consolidation)Historically the largest conservative party; increasingly populist.Leader: Benjamin Netanyahu, 77.ImageMr.

Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.Credit...Pool photo by Ohad ZwigenbergMany consider this election a referendum on Mr. Netanyahu, who as prime minister has not delivered on his promise to achieve “total victory” in Israel’s wars and has not accepted responsibility for security failures preceding the Hamas-led attack on Oct.

7, 2023, the deadliest day in the country’s history. He has also faced blowback over a deeply unpopular military draft exemption for ultra-Orthodox Israeli Jews and a divisive push for judicial reforms, which would in part reduce the Supreme Court’s powers.A right-wing party with strong support in working-class and traditional Jewish communities, Likud has governed Israel for more than 34 out of the past 49 years, including 19 under Mr.

Netanyahu.Mr. Netanyahu, who faces corruption charges and an international arrest warrant in connection with the conduct of the Gaza war, has vowed to “complete the job” in waging Israel’s various conflicts and block the formation of a Palestinian state.Yashar! (Honest, or Straight)New party aimed at centrists and center-right voters worried about where the Netanyahu coalition is leading Israel.Leader: Gadi Eisenkot, 66.ImageGadi Eisenkot is a former military chief of staff.Credit...Erik Marmor/Getty ImagesA former military chief of staff, Mr.

Eisenkot served in Mr. Netanyahu’s war cabinet for part of the Gaza war, in which one of Mr.

Eisenkot’s sons and two nephews were killed. He formed his party a year ago and has emerged as Mr.

Netanyahu’s top challenger. His platform strikes at Mr.

Netanyahu’s vulnerabilities, including by endorsing calls to investigate the failures preceding the Oct. 7 attack.Mr.

Eisenkot has rejected the prospect of Palestinian statehood in the near term. He has also voiced support for a more restrained expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank while promising to curb settler violence.Other major opposition partiesB’Yachad (Together)A partnership between the centrist, secular and liberal Yesh Atid (There Is a Future) party and Naftali Bennett, a right-wing nationalist.Leader: Naftali Bennett, 54.ImageNaftali Bennett is a right-wing former prime minister.Credit...Ilia Yefimovich/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIn 2021, Mr.

Bennett and Yair Lapid, 62, the leader of Yesh Atid, allied to oust Mr. Netanyahu in a short-lived government.

This year, they have sought to lead an anti-Netanyahu front again, emphasizing unity amid Israel’s bitter divisions. They have called for an expanded draft of the ultra-Orthodox and an inquiry into the Oct.

7 attack.Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home)A secular Jewish party that is right-wing on security matters but broke with Mr. Netanyahu years ago.Leader: Avigdor Liberman, 68.ImageAvigdor Liberman, shown in 2021, is a former foreign minister and defense minister.Credit...Emmanuel Dunand/ReutersFounded in 1999 as a political home for immigrants from the former Soviet Union, the party has since expanded its appeal by promising to defend Israel’s secular Jewish character against the rising influence of ultra-Orthodox rabbis.The DemocratsHeir to two parties from Israel’s dwindling political left, which once dominated the country.Leader: Yair Golan, 64.Mr.

Golan, an outspoken former two-star general, formed the Democrats in 2024 out of the remnants of the storied Israeli Labor party and the more left-wing Meretz party. It favors a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while seeking to forge Israel’s identity as a liberal, secular Jewish state.Other major pro-Netanyahu partiesOtzma Yehudit (Jewish Power)A far-right, ultranationalist, anti-Arab party.Leader: Itamar Ben-Gvir, 50.ImageItamar Ben-Gvir early this month.Credit...Amir Levy/Getty ImagesMr.

Ben-Gvir, a right-wing provocateur, made his name as a lawyer defending Israeli settlers arrested for attacking Palestinians. His support appears to have grown amid a shift to the right among Jewish Israelis since the Oct.

7 attack. He has called for the removal from Gaza of Palestinians through “voluntary emigration.” Mr.

Ben-Gvir has drawn international condemnation and sanctions for his anti-Arab rhetoric and conduct as national security minister in Mr. Netanyahu’s government.Religious ZionismA far-right, ultranationalist party with a focus on expanding Israeli settlement of the West Bank.Leader: Bezalel Smotrich, 46.ImageFinance Minister Bezalel Smotrich this month.Credit...Erik Marmor/Getty ImagesAs finance minister and a minister in charge of the administration of the West Bank, Mr.

Smotrich has masterminded the steady advancement of Israel’s de facto annexation of the territory by expanding settlements, building roads for Israelis and crippling the Palestinian Authority, which administers part of the West Bank. He has repeatedly said that Israel should permanently occupy and resettle the Gaza Strip with Jews.Amcha Yisrael (People of Israel)A right-wing party that supports Mr.

Netanyahu but opposes a draft exemption for the ultra-Orthodox.Leader: Ofer Winter, 55.Mr. Winter, a former brigadier general who formed the party in August, gained prominence for his hawkish national security views.

He has spoken of encouraging the voluntary emigration of Palestinians from Gaza.ShasTraditional political home for ultra-Orthodox Jews whose families came to Israel from the Middle East and North Africa.Leader: Aryeh Deri, 67.Mr. Deri, a veteran political operator, spent time in prison for bribery and fraud, and was later convicted of tax fraud and barred from serving as a government minister.

Shas’s following extends beyond ultra-Orthodox Jews to others who are less religious but whose roots are likewise in the Middle East and North Africa.United Torah JudaismAn alliance of two parties representing different streams of ultra-Orthodox Judaism with roots in Eastern Europe.Leader: Yaakov Asher, 61.U.T.J.’s politics center on protecting the ultra-Orthodox, or haredi, community’s strict religious way of life. It has long been allied with Mr.

Netanyahu, whose governments have supported U.T.J.’s voters with subsidies. But the partnership has grown increasingly shaky.The Arab partiesRaam (United Arab List)An Islamist party that increasingly advocates coexistence between Arabs and Jews.Leader: Mansour Abbas, 52.ImageMansour Abbas is leader of the United Arab List.Credit...Jalaa Marey/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesMr.

Abbas has taken a pragmatic approach to Arabs’ participation in Israeli politics, and in 2021, he made history by joining an Israeli governing coalition. In August, he recruited a Zionist former senior police commander as Raam’s No.

2 candidate. If Jewish opposition parties drop their resistance to joining a coalition with an Arab party, Mr.

Abbas could be crucial to ousting Mr. Netanyahu.The Joint ListAn alliance of three parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel.Leader: Yousef Jabareen, 54.The Joint List’s component parties represent a range of ideologies, including a Jewish-Arab communist alliance and a Palestinian nationalist party.

Their goal in uniting is to bring more Arab voters to the ballot box, expanding their representation in Parliament.