Itamar Ben-Gvir's party Otzma Yehudit has gained two seats, coming to a total of nine mandates, according to a Maariv survey published on Friday, following the former national security minister's resignation from government earlier this week over the hostage deal.
According to the poll, Likud garnered 21 mandates, dropping by two seats. Benny Gantz's National Unity party and Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu both earned 18 seats.
Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid was at 13 seats, according to the poll. Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionist Party passed the electoral threshold, while Gideon Sa’ar's United Right Party failed to pass.
As such, Netanyahu's coalition block earned 51 mandates, while the opposition received 59. With the Arab parties accounting for ten mandates, the poll indicated that the opposition would not be able to form a government without their support or defections from the coalition.
Were a party led by Naftali Bennett to join the electoral race, the poll indicated that such a party would be in the lead with 27 mandates. In this scenario, the Likud would drop to 19 seats, Yesh Atid to nine, and Smotrich and Sa'ar would both fall below the electoral threshold.
Some 62% of Israelis believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should resign due to his responsibility for the failures on October 7.
In contrast, 29% opposed his resignation, and 9% expressed no opinion.
A breakdown of the data revealed a significant divide, with 93% of opposition voters supporting Netanyahu’s resignation, compared to just 31% of coalition voters. Notably, 18% of Likud voters themselves believed Netanyahu should step down.
Hostage deal
Only 28% of Israelis believe the hostage deal will be fully completed, according to the survey. Some 39% predicted that the deal would not be fully carried out, and 33% refrained from expressing an opinion.
Opposition voters showed some optimism, with 34% believing the deal would be completed, while coalition voters were more pessimistic, with 42% thinking the opposite.
Among those who expressed pessimistic opinions, 74% blamed Hamas for the anticipated failure, 21% accused Israel, and 5% pointed to other factors or refrained from expressing an opinion.
Some 88% of coalition voters and 64% of opposition voters blamed Hamas for an anticipated failure in the completion of the hostage deal. A third of opposition voters (34%) versus just 9% of coalition voters saw Israel as the obstructing factor.