Early exit polls in Israel’s election showed no clear winner Tuesday, with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political bloc and the opposition falling short of the 61 seats needed for a parliamentary majority, according to results reported by Al Jazeera.

Israel’s Channel 12 projected the opposition bloc would win 52 seats, compared with 50 for Netanyahu’s bloc. Arab parties were projected to win a combined 18 seats.

A separate Channel 13 exit poll showed a similarly divided result, projecting the opposition bloc at 53 seats, Netanyahu’s bloc at 50 and Arab parties at 17.

The projections leave neither major bloc able to form a government on its own and could make the Arab parties decisive in coalition negotiations.

Arab Parties Could Make the Difference

According to Al Jazeera, both Netanyahu’s bloc and the opposition have said they do not want to rely on Arab parties to form a government, potentially complicating efforts to assemble a governing majority.

Channel 13 projected Netanyahu’s Likud would remain the largest individual party, winning 25 seats. Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party was projected to win 23.

The Channel 13 poll also projected Together at 14 seats, the Joint List at 10, Democrats at nine, Yisrael Beiteinu at seven, United Torah Judaism at seven, Ra’am at seven, Shas at six, Otzma Yehudit, also known as Jewish Power, at six, and Religious Zionism at six.

Eisenkot said the exit poll projections showed what he called “a total lack of confidence in Netanyahu and the ‘October 7th government.’”

“If these are the final results, it is a victory for the mainstream Zionist majority in Israel,” Eisenkot said in comments carried by Channel 12 and reported by Al Jazeera.

Eisenkot said he would move to replace Netanyahu’s government and form what he described as a “Zionist government of national mobilization.”

Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats party, also said the election results showed voters had “dismissed” Netanyahu’s government.

“We have been granted a historic opportunity to form a government of genuine change in Israel, and we have no intention of letting it slip away,” Golan said in a social media post, according to Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera reported that several smaller right-wing parties appeared to be struggling under the projections, while Arab-led parties were on track to secure as many as 18 seats.

The fragmented results could leave Eisenkot with limited paths to a majority unless he gains support from Arab parties, persuades ultra-Orthodox parties to join his coalition, or reaches an agreement with parties currently aligned with Netanyahu.

Preliminary election results were expected in the coming hours, according to Al Jazeera. Final results were expected in the coming days and could differ from the exit polls.