Legislative elections are scheduled to be held in Israel by 27 October 2026 to elect the 120 members of the twenty-sixth Knesset.
After the 36th government lost its majority, snap elections were called in 2022. They resulted in the Netanyahu bloc gaining a majority, and a government was successfully negotiated between Likud, Otzma Yehudit, Noam, Religious Zionist Party, United Torah Judaism, and Shas. The coalition was sworn in on 29 December 2022.
With this new government, Netanyahu returned to the premiership, having previously been out of office since the anti-Netanyahu bloc won a majority in the 2021 election and formed a government without Netanyahu's Likud. Five members of the National Unity party (Benny Gantz, Gadi Eizenkot, Gideon Sa'ar, Hili Tropper, and Yifat Shasha-Biton) joined an emergency wartime government in October 2023 following the outbreak of the Gaza war. Gantz and Eizenkot also joined the Israeli war cabinet.
Sa'ar announced on 25 March 2024 that New Hope had resigned from the government. Gantz and the rest of his National Unity party left the government on 9 June. New Hope rejoined the government in September 2024. Otzma Yehudit announced on 19 January 2025 that it would leave the government because of a Gaza ceasefire agreement. The resignations went into effect two days later. Members of Otzma Yehudit rejoined the government in March, after the ceasefire collapsed.
The 120 seats in the Knesset are elected by closed list proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency. The electoral threshold for the election is 3.25%. Two parties can sign a surplus vote agreement that allows them to compete for leftover seats as if they were running together on the same list. The BaderâÂÂOfer method slightly favours larger lists, meaning that alliances are more likely to receive leftover seats than parties would be individually. If the alliance receives leftover seats, the BaderâÂÂOfer calculation is applied privately, to determine how the seats are divided among the two allied lists.
Per sections 8 and 9 of the Israeli quasi-constitutional Basic Law: , an election will typically be called approximately 4 years after the previous election, on the first or third Tuesday of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, depending on whether or not the previous year was a Jewish Leap Year. An election can happen earlier if the government falls and the Knesset is dissolved, or later if the Knesset's term is extended by a supermajority vote. Per section 36 if the previous Knesset was dissolved earlier than the expiration of its full term then the next election shall be held the next month of Cheshvan after 4 years of a current Knesset's term have been completed (from 1970 all except in 1988 had been early elections). Since the 2022 elections were held in Cheshvan a question was raised as to once 4 years from the last elections are completed whether the "next Cheshvan" will be in 2027 or 2026. The Israeli Supreme Court decided that it is in 2026; the next election was scheduled to be held no later than 27 October 2026.
After the October 7 attacks and the ensuing Gaza war, some have called for the resignation of Netanyahu, with polls suggesting that more than 75% of Israelis believe he should step down. There have also been calls for a snap election once the war is over. Minister of Labor Yoav Ben-Tzur said that an election should occur within 90 days of the end of the war, although he later walked those statements back. Polling suggests that 64% of Israelis believe that an election should happen as soon as the war is over. In late 2025, Netanyahu said he expected elections to happen at the end of 2026, i.e. on time. In early 2026, Israeli Minister of Science and Technology Gila Gamliel said elections will likely be brought forward to late June or July to allow Netanyahu bloc to leverage the Iran war.
A new budget was passed on 30 March, avoiding early elections.
Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, the issues of Haredi conscription in Israel and exemptions from military service have become a major debate. During the war, support for Haredi conscription rose significantly, from 67% in January 2024 to 84.5% by January 2025.
In June 2024, the Supreme Court of Israel declared any continued exemption of IDF conscription unlawful. In response, officials in the ultra-Orthodox Shas party urged potential conscripts to ignore any call-ups from the IDF and to protest. By the next month, the army began drafting 3,000 Haredi men.
Israeli opposition leaders have criticized the coalition's unwillingness to enforce a full conscription on eligible Haredi citizens, and have called for an end to Haredi exemptions from military service. Inbar Gity of Yashar has named Haredi conscription "a top priority". Similarly, the issue of Haredi conscription is considered a "central question" in the campaign of Yesh Atid and its leader Yair Lapid.
A major issue in the election is for an investigation into the October 7 attacks. On 6 February 2026, sitting prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a document of his answers during an investigation by the State Comptroller of Israel, which pinned the failures on Netanyahu's political rivals while presenting himself in a positive image. This led to criticism from opposition lawmakers, including from Gadi Eisenkot, who recently founded a new party Yashar to contest in the elections. Eisenkot accused Netanyahu of creating a "fabricated defense" and that the document was published "out of a desire to improve his image, distance himself from blame and harm the other candidates facing him". Naftali Bennett, a top contender in the election, has pledged to establish a commission of inquiry into 7 October as part of his campaign platform.
According to a poll in December 2025, an estimated 71% of Israelis support establishing a constitution for the country instead of the existing Basic Laws of Israel. Naftali Bennett's "Bennett 2026" party campaigned on creating a constitution as part of its election platform.
The table below lists the results of the 2022 Knesset elections.
The table below lists all members of the Knesset (MKs) who will not stand for re-election.
Leadership elections have been held by some parties to determine party leadership ahead of the election. Primary elections will be held by some parties in advance of the national election to determine the composition of their party list.
National Unity had announced on 8 June 2025 that it would hold leadership primaries. The party's Knesset faction was renamed to Blue and White-National Unity in July 2025, following the departures of MKs Gadi Eisenkot and Matan Kahana from the party.
Party leader Merav Michaeli announced on 7 December 2023 that she was calling an early leadership election that she would not run in. In response, Meretz chairman Tomer Reznik urged Labor to hold joint primaries with Meretz. On 6 May, the party announced the final slate of leadership candidates: Yair Golan, Itai Leshem, Azi Nagar and Avi Shaked. Golan won the leadership election, which was held on 28 May. On 30 June 2024, Labor and Meretz announced an agreement to merge into a new party, The Democrats, with Golan as the new party's leader. The merger was approved in July by a conference of Labor and Meretz delegates.
Prior to its primary the Likud held elections to its Central Committee in November 2025 for the first time since January 2012. The primary is set for October 2026, unless the Knesset election takes place earlier than its scheduled date.
Yesh Atid held its first leadership primary on 28 March 2024, in which party leader Yair Lapid narrowly beat MK Ram Ben-Barak 308 votes to 279, a margin of 29 votes.
This graph shows the polling trends from the 2022 elections until the next election day using a local regression. Scenario polls are not included here. For parties not crossing the electoral threshold (currently 3.25%) in any given poll, the number of seats is calculated as a percentage of the 120 total seats.