Elections 2026 IDF soldiers begin voting as poll shows most Israelis have settled on a party

Soldiers and officers of the Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday began voting at over 850 military polling stations across Israel, as well as in areas held by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria, while parties ramp up their campaigns just days before the Oct. 27 general election.

The IDF’s voting period lasts a full week to allow all soldiers, including those currently on air, land, and sea operations, to cast their votes.

“Our mission is to enable all IDF service members to exercise their democratic right to vote by secret ballot, including during operational activities and combat beyond the border. The IDF is an apolitical people’s army that will do everything necessary to ensure that the elections are held as scheduled,” the IDF’s Election Officer stated.

Early voting began today at IDF bases, with around 850 special polling stations set to serve soldiers over the coming week. https://t.co/eEkZss5pUo

— Israel Elects (@israel_elects) October 21, 2026

The military is the second of two groups that are allowed to vote before election day, coming after Israel’s diplomatic staff, who cast their ballots last week.

The rest of Israel is now entering an intense week of final campaigning by the more than 30 parties still running.

According to a Walla News poll published on Tuesday, 45% of respondents said they were already “completely certain” whom they would vote for, while another 49% said they were fairly certain.

However, certainty varied heavily between the parties, with 81% of Arab Joint List voters saying they are completely certain, while only 40% of Yashar voters and 23% of Together (B’Yachad) respondents said the same.

Like most polls over the past months, the Walla poll continued to project a stalemate between the two major blocs, with neither securing enough votes to establish a government.

Following the withdrawal of Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party, the poll saw Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar rise to 23 seats, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud fell to 19.

Regarding the two key parties polling close to the threshold, Ofer Winter's Amcha Yisrael (“People of Israel”) party fell short with 2.9%, while Yoaz Hendel and Yaron Zelekha's Reservists/Economic Party narrowly passed, securing four seats.

This would give the Eisenkot bloc 54 seats, with the possible addition of four Reservists/Economic Party seats. The party leaders officially said on Monday that they rule out joining a coalition with the ultra-Orthodox parties, making them more likely to join Eisenkot.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu's coalition bloc fell by one seat to 48, while the Arab parties, Joint List and Ra’am, received eight and six seats, respectively.

דוברות של ליברמן ואיזנקוט מהבוקר! הם סגורים עם יאיר גולן ולפיד! השמאל הקיצון שלא יעבדו עליכם! הודעה משותפת לישר! עם איזנקוט ולישראל ביתנו בראשות אביגדור ליברמן: אמש (ג׳) נפגשו יו״ר ישר! גדי איזנקוט ויו״ר ישראל ביתנו אביגדור ליברמן ודנו בהערכות המיטבית לבחירות הקרובות. איזנקוט וליברמן סיכמו כי המאמץ החשוב ביותר כעת הוא להגדלת אחוז ההצבעה בבחירות. כמו כן הודגשה חשיבות ההצבעה לאחת מארבע מפלגות גוש המשרתים והימנעות מהצבעה למפלגות שלא עוברות את אחוז החסימה. השניים סיכמו להמשיך בשיתוף הפעולה ביניהם לטובת הניצחון והחלפת ממשלת המחדל ב27/10/26.

— or keren (@Wq0oQJmUSfZunt5) October 21, 2026

On Tuesday evening, Eisenkot and Yisrael Beiteinu party chairman Avigdor Liberman, an ostensible core member of the “Change Bloc,” attempted to hash out their differences after exchanging harsh attacks against each other last week.

In a joint statement, they said they had “discussed the best preparations for the upcoming election” and agreed that “the most important effort at this stage is to increase voter turnout in the election. They also emphasized the importance of voting for one of the four parties in the ‘serving bloc’ and avoiding voting for parties that do not pass the electoral threshold.”

However, Yashar continued openly campaigning against the other parties in the bloc in a campaign poster the next day, urging voters in the opposition to support Yashar and make it the largest party, in order to beat Netanyahu’s Likud and change the government.

In the party’s latest campaign video, it argued that a recent Channel 12 poll proved that the “only way” to replace Netanyahu, and the “government of slaughter and draft dodging,” is to vote Yashar: “This time, Eisenkot.”

The other members of the bloc also ramped up their campaigns in recent days.

B’Yachad (“Together”) party leader Naftali Bennett doubled down on his criticism of Netanyahu’s security policies, attacking him over the failure to destroy Hamas and declare Qatar an enemy state.

“Right now, the current government's approach, essentially Bibi's [Netanyahu] approach, is to get us used to living alongside Hamas. There is no real attempt to eliminate it,” Bennett said at the Gaza Border Communities Conference 2026 on Sunday.

On Wednesday, Yair Golan, the last member of the bloc and chairman of the far-left Democrats party, on Wednesday attacked Netanyahu as “a sick and weak leader who clings to power by force and is willing to endanger Israel’s security to save himself.”

Reiterating his claim that Netanyahu seeks to drag Israel into a new military conflict “for political and personal reasons on the eve of an election,” Golan urged the military to “stop any military action intended to serve personal interests under the guise of security needs.”

In a Jerusalem Post interview, Golan also expressed support for including the Islamist Arab Ra’am party in the next government – a position that his bloc partners are highly unlikely to endorse.

“Over 20% of Israeli citizens are Arabs. Excluding them from participating in government just on the basis of their national or ethnic identity is unacceptable,” Golan said.

“In the previous government, in which all the current opposition party heads served, [Ra’am chairman] Mansour Abbas was an excellent political partner,” he argued, “I therefore see no reason why we should rule out working with him again, based on an agreed policy platform, as part of an effort to build a coalition and replace the current government.”