Israel Elections 2026: General elections announced in Israel amid great war with Iran and Hamas, voting on time after 38 years; Netanyahu’s power at stake

The biggest political news of this time is coming from Israel, which has been engaged in a fierce war with Iran, Lebanon and Gaza in the Middle East for a year. The dates of the upcoming general parliamentary elections in Israel have been officially announced. As soon as the election date has been announced, the time has come for the most challenging test of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nearly 4 decade long political career. Amidst this tense atmosphere of war, as soon as the election bugle sounds, political excitement has reached its peak across Israel. According to the official reports of Israeli media late on Sunday evening, general elections will be held in the country on October 27, 2026, after the completion of the four-year term of the current government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel will repeat history after 38 years. According to a special report of ‘Times of Israel’, senior leader of the ruling Likud party, Ofir Katz, made it clear that the next elections will be held on the scheduled date as per Israeli law. The current Parliament of Israel i.e. ‘Knesset’ is completing its four-year term on 17 July 2026. As soon as the term is completed, Parliament will go on election break and the final list of candidates will be finalized by 7 September. This election is going to be very historic because it will be the first time in the last 38 years of Israeli history that national elections are being held on schedule instead of being dissolved at any time. The last time elections were held on time was in 1988. With this, this right-wing government led by Netanyahu will become the first Israeli government in the last 50 years to complete a full four-year term. The toughest test of the longest serving PM Benjamin Netanyahu is the longest ruling Prime Minister in the history of Israel. Till now, he has become the Prime Minister of the country a record 6 times, in which his first term started in 1996 and the sixth term continues from December 2022 till now. However, this time political analysts are considering it to be the most difficult election of his life. This time, while voting, the Israeli public will evaluate the Netanyahu government on the basis of the surprise attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, intelligence and security failure, the methods of Gaza-Lebanon war, direct military confrontation with Iran and deteriorated diplomatic relations with America. However, Netanyahu is giving edge to the election campaign in the name of nationalism by citing the elimination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei and weakening of the Iranian military system as his biggest strategic victory amid corruption allegations against him. What are Israel’s election surveys saying? (Opinion Polls) According to the latest pre-poll survey of Israel’s leading media house ‘Channel 12’, no single political party seems to be getting an absolute majority in this great contest. At present, both Netanyahu’s Likud Party and former military chief Gadi Eiseenkot’s opposition Yashar Party are emerging as the largest political parties with 23 seats each. In another opinion poll of ‘Channel 13’, Aizencott’s party has been shown to be the largest party. Overall, the magic figure of 61 seats required to form the government in Israel’s 120-member Parliament (Knesset) does not seem to be easily achieved by any coalition, due to which the chances of once again forming a ‘Hung Parliament’ in Israel have become stronger.