Netanyahu bloc steady at 53 seats as Israel's vote count passes 93.8%

Successive updates to the vote count in Israel's general election have left the balance between the main political camps unchanged, with the bloc backing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at 53 seats and the opposing camp at 48, according to tallies published on Telegram by Channel 12 political analyst Amit Segal. In Segal's update timed 09:49:24 on 29/10/2026, about 93.8% of votes had been counted, with 65,601 votes added since his previous figures.

The movement within the count has been confined to the Arab parties, where one seat has shifted between the Joint List and Ra'am. Separately, Ynet reported that the Central Elections Committee put the number of votes counted at 5,168,955. The Jerusalem Post reported that the Netanyahu bloc was holding its lead, with the so-called double envelopes still to be counted overnight.

The party-by-party picture

Segal's most recent figures, at roughly 93.8% of the count, gave Likud, Netanyahu's party, 26 seats. Yashar followed with 21, then Together (Beyachad) with 12 and the Joint List with 11. The Democrats stood at 8, as did Ra'am. Yisrael Beytenu, Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), United Torah Judaism and Shas each had 7, and the joint list of Religious Zionism and Zehut had 6.

Two lists were shown as falling short of the minimum vote share needed to enter the Knesset, Israel's parliament: the Reservists and the Economic Party, on 2.66%, and Amcha Yisrael, on 1.63%. In Segal's earlier update those figures were 2.65% and 1.62% respectively.

Segal labels the 53-seat camp as the current coalition, meaning the parties in Netanyahu's outgoing government, and the 48-seat camp as the change bloc, a term used for the parties seeking to replace him. He lists the Joint List and Ra'am separately from both.

A seat moving between the Arab parties

The Joint List and Ra'am are the two main parties drawing votes from Israel's Arab citizens. Ra'am, also known as the United Arab List, is an Islamist party; the Joint List is an alliance of Arab-led parties. Together they account for 19 seats in every update in the material, but the split between them has changed as counting continued.

N12, the news site of Channel 12, relayed Segal's reading that at 92.7% of votes counted the Joint List had risen to 12 seats at Ra'am's expense, leaving Ra'am on 7. About an hour later, in his update at 93.8%, the seat had moved back: Ra'am rose to 8 and the Joint List dropped to 11. In relaying that update, N12 quoted Segal as setting it against the backdrop of revelations about an affair involving Qatari money allegedly channelled to influence the Arab public's vote. The reports provide no further detail on that affair.

Where the reports differ

The sources do not line up neatly on timing. The Telegram channel Abu Ali Express reported that after about 91% of the actual votes were counted, the bloc picture was unchanged at 53 for the Netanyahu bloc, 48 for the change bloc and 19 for the Arab parties, with Ra'am on 8 after gaining a seat from the Joint List. That post was published after Segal's 92.7% update, which had Ra'am on 7 rather than 8. The bloc totals are the same across all the tallies; the difference lies in the share of the count each figure was based on and in the Joint List and Ra'am split at a given moment.

What double envelopes are

In Israeli elections, double envelopes are ballots cast outside a voter's home polling station, for example by soldiers and by certain other groups who vote at special stations. Each ballot is sealed inside a second envelope carrying the voter's details so that it can be checked against the register before being counted. Because of this extra step, they are tallied after the regular votes, which is why late changes are often possible. Abu Ali Express reported that counting of the double envelopes began overnight, and The Jerusalem Post said they were due to be counted overnight.

The election itself was held on October 27, 2026, according to a photo caption accompanying The Jerusalem Post's report.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports states how many double-envelope ballots remain or when the final count is expected. They do not say whether the two lists below the entry line could still cross it, or how a change in either would affect the seat distribution. The Ynet alert gives a raw vote total from the Central Elections Committee but not the percentage of the count it represents or a seat breakdown. The material gives no detail on the Qatari funding allegations Segal referred to, who made them or whether any authority is examining them. The seat figures here are projections from partial counts, not official results.