Israel's stock market plummeted 5%. Prime Minister Netanyahu takes the lead in the election

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) index plummeted 5% — as the country tallies the results of the parliamentary election, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has begun to pull ahead of opposition leader Gadi Eizenkot, according to Bloomberg.

However, with only half the votes counted so far, neither of them has a clear path to forming a government. According to projections, Netanyahu’s bloc will win 56 seats in the 120-seat Knesset—Israel’s parliament—while Eisenkot’s bloc will win 48. The remaining seats will go to Arab parties. These results differ sharply from the exit poll data published a few hours earlier, which indicated a lead for the opposition.

This news story is being updated.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor