Gadi Eisenkot called on Benjamin Netanyahu to leave political life and said sending Israelis back to the polls would be a mistake, pledging to do everything to fulfill the will of the people.
Gadi Eisenkot called on Benjamin Netanyahu to retire from political life, and warned in a speech that holding yet another Israeli election would be a mistake.
Eisenkot vowed to do everything in his power to carry out the will of the people.
Israelis voted on Tuesday, October 27, in the election for the 26th Knesset, the country's first national election since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. Exit polls from i24 gave Likud 27 seats, with Eisenkot's party second on a projected 20.
Those numbers are projections, not results. Official results are published by the Central Elections Committee, the body responsible for the count. A governing majority requires 61 of the Knesset's 120 seats.
Opposition figures also weighed in. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declared that Netanyahu had lost and said leaders of what he called the "bloc for change" were already coordinating to form the next government.
Ra'am chairman Mansour Abbas, whose party is one of the Arab parties, was more cautious. Asked on Channel 12 about the criteria Eisenkot had set for joining a coalition, Abbas said he would decide whether to meet them only after he knew whether a government could be formed. "With these numbers, there is no government," Abbas said.
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