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Women arrive to cast their ballots at a polling station in the southern Bedouin city of Rahat on October 27, 2026, on the day of Israel's legislative election.
Israel's election commission stated that the voter turnout in first half of the day was the highest on record.
"This morning we were informed that they are trying to steal the election from us. Tibi, Mansour Abbas and Shehadeh say their voters are flocking to the polls, and that’s true. The voting rate there is very high," Netanyahu said.
The campaign was still on the walls a day earlier. On Oct. 26, an Israeli soldier walked past a settler waiting by a concrete barrier covered in posters for Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), the far-right party of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
The junction is outside the Palestinian village of Haris in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
It is the first election since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, with voters delivering their verdict on the veteran prime minister and the country's rightward drift.
Today, on election day, the push for votes spilled onto the streets.
Volunteers set up campaign posters outside a polling station in Jerusalem.
Inside the polling stations, preparations were under way.
An election official sorted polling slips at a station in Umm al-Fahm, an Arab-Israeli town.
Then the voters arrived. At the Ziv community center in Jerusalem, a man checked the voters roll, the official list of people eligible to vote at that station.
Inside the same polling station, a woman cast her ballot as the first Israeli election since Oct. 7.
Ben Gvir, leader of Otzma Yehudit, voted with his wife, Ayala, at a polling station in Kiryat Arba.
The settlement is in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and most of the international community considers settlements illegal under international law, a position Israel disputes.
Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, and his wife, Hannah, cast their ballots at a polling station in Herzliya.
Yousef Jabareen, leader of the Arab-led Joint List alliance, voted at a polling station in Umm al-Fahm.
Ahmad Tibi, head of the Arab Movement for Change (Ta’al) party, cast his ballot with family members in Tayibe, a predominantly Arab city.
Voting continued across the country through the day. A woman cast her ballot in Daliyat al-Karmel, a Druze village in northern Israel.
In the occupied West Bank, right-wing settlers waited to cast their ballots at a polling station in Adora.
Israelis pray outside the Cave of the Patriarchs in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on October 27, 2026, during Israel's legislative election.
Israeli border policeman casts his ballot at a polling station in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on October 27, 2026 during Israel's legislative election.
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