Bennett tells supporters Netanyahu has lost as exit polls give his party 12 to 13 seats

Naftali Bennett, chairman of the Beyachad (Together) party, declared on election night that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had lost and that what he called the "October 7 government" would be sent home. Ynet reported that exit polls gave Beyachad between 12 and 13 seats, and that Bennett told supporters the leaders of his political camp were already working in coordination.

In the same address, Bennett framed the result as a victory for Israelis who serve in the military over those who avoid it. According to News.co.il, he said he would wait for the actual results before drawing final conclusions, but claimed that the outgoing coalition had fallen from 68 seats to 50. He called for a Zionist government of what he described as doers, one that would run the country responsibly and serve the whole of the Israeli public.

What exit polls mean on an Israeli election night

Israeli television channels publish exit polls, known in Hebrew as midgamim, as soon as voting closes. They are projections based on samples of voters, not official counts, and final figures from the Central Elections Committee can differ from them, sometimes enough to change the arithmetic of who can form a coalition. Party leaders routinely give speeches based on these early numbers, which is why Bennett, according to News.co.il, stressed that he would wait for the real results.

Israeli politicians and media count parliamentary strength in "mandates", meaning seats in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. A prime minister needs the backing of a majority of Knesset members to form a government, so the seat totals of rival blocs, rather than of any single party, decide who governs.

The language of the speech

Bennett's central line contrasted a "covenant of those who serve" with a "covenant of draft dodgers". The phrase refers to one of the most contested issues in Israeli politics: military exemptions for ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men, which Netanyahu's coalition partners have sought to preserve. Bennett went further and labelled the outgoing government the "draft-dodging coalition", in the wording reported by News.co.il.

His description of the outgoing government as the "October 7 government" ties it to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, which happened while Netanyahu's coalition was in office. Opposition figures have used the label to hold the government responsible for the failures surrounding that day. Ynet's headline rendered the phrase using the date written as 7/10, the common Israeli shorthand.

Bennett also referred to the heads of the "Tikkun bloc", a Hebrew term that can be translated as the bloc of repair or correction, which is how the anti-Netanyahu camp described itself in this campaign. He said its leaders would do everything "without ego" to form a government, according to both reports. News.co.il said he ended his remarks with the Hebrew-Arabic slang call "yalla", roughly "let's go".

Lapid's reaction

Opposition figure Yair Lapid also spoke on the night. Ynet reported that Lapid called the result a heavy defeat for Netanyahu, and said a broad coalition might not exist on the first day but would be widened later. That remark suggests the opposition leaders anticipate starting with a narrower government than they would prefer, though Lapid did not spell out its composition in the reported comments.

Who is Naftali Bennett

Bennett is a former prime minister and a one-time ally of Netanyahu on the political right who later became one of his main rivals. He contested this election at the head of Beyachad. The exit poll figure reported by Ynet would make Beyachad a significant component of any opposition-led coalition, though neither report gives the projected seat totals of other parties.

What the reports do not say

Neither report identifies which television channel or channels produced the exit polls, or gives the full projected breakdown for every party. The claim that the outgoing coalition dropped from 68 seats to 50 comes from Bennett's speech as reported by News.co.il; neither outlet presents it as an independent tally, and it is not clear which poll it rests on. The reports do not say which parties make up the Tikkun bloc, whether its projected total amounts to a Knesset majority, or who among its leaders would seek to become prime minister. Netanyahu's response, if any, is not included in the material. Official results had not been published when these reports appeared.