Israelis turned out in record numbers on Tuesday, with 66.7% of eligible voters casting ballots by 6 p.m., the highest figure ever recorded at that hour, according to the Central Elections Committee. The day also brought competing fraud claims and a legal fight over whether polls should stay open late.

The election fills all 120 Knesset seats. Final polls before the vote put former army chief Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud, with neither bloc near the 61 seats needed to govern, as we reported in our election-eve preview. Polls were scheduled to close at 10 p.m. local time, with exit polls expected shortly after.

Turnout by the numbers

The committee's hourly figures, as reported by The Times of Israel, ran well ahead of the 2022 election at every checkpoint. The newsroom's comparison:

Noon: 31.5%. not reported. n/a.

4 p.m: 55.7%. 47.5%. +8.2 points.

6 p.m: 66.7%. 57.7%. +9.0 points.

Soldiers, 5 p.m: 68%. 65%. +3 points.

The gap widened during the afternoon rather than narrowing, which suggests the surge was not simply an early-morning rush. Eligible prisoners voted at 68.1% by 2 p.m., the paper reported. Soldiers had been able to vote for a week at 850 polling stations, including in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, according to the paper's live coverage.

Who benefits is not yet clear. The Religious Zionism party warned that high turnout could push smaller right-wing parties below the 3.25% threshold for entering the Knesset. The Times of Israel also reported high turnout in Arab towns.

The fight over voting hours

Late in the afternoon, Likud and Shas asked the Central Elections Committee to extend voting past 10 p.m. Shas said the aim was to keep people still waiting in line from losing their chance to vote. Former general Ofer Winter's People of Israel party joined the request, citing "unusual congestion" at polling stations.

Yashar opposed the bid, saying "no unusual incident has occurred that would justify approving the request." The committee said polling stations would stay open after 10 p.m. for anyone already waiting in line. A ruling on the broader extension request had not been reported at the time of writing.

Competing claims of fraud

Netanyahu said opponents were "trying to steal the election from us," pointing to claims of fraud in the Arab sector that The Times of Israel described as unsubstantiated. Yashar accused him of laying "the groundwork to challenge the election results."

Several other parties, including Yisrael Beytenu, Ra'am and People of Israel, reported alleged irregularities such as missing or defaced ballot slips. The legal advocacy group Adalah reported long delays in Arab communities. The Central Elections Committee said there was no evidence of systematic tampering with ballot slips and that individual reports were being handled immediately.

Arrests and incidents

Police said at least four people were arrested over alleged election-related crimes, according to the paper. They included three men from southern Bedouin communities, described as linked to Ra'am, who were arrested on suspicion of bribing voters after searches found envelopes holding tens of thousands of shekels. Ra'am called the arrests "sham arrests." The men are presumed innocent.

In Tel Aviv, police arrested a man near opposition politician Yair Golan after a large knife fell from his clothing, Golan's party said. Police confirmed the arrest and the knife but denied that there had been an attempted stabbing. A well-known singer was also questioned over a video that appeared to call for violence against left-wing voters. He said the clip was an AI fake, though Hebrew media reported he later admitted it was genuine.

What comes next

Exit polls at 10 p.m. give the first picture, but they can differ from the final count, and absentee "double envelope" ballots, including soldiers' votes, are counted later. Once official results are in, Israel's president consults the parties and picks the lawmaker most likely to form a coalition. The vote takes place three years after the attack that reshaped the country, a story we covered in our report from the Gaza border.

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