Exit polls following Israel’s second general election in five months suggest the result is too close to call.
Incumbent PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s party is projected to win 30 to 33 seats and that of his main challenger, Benny Gantz, 32-34 seats.
A prime minister needs to command a 61-seat majority in parliament. The smaller Yisrael Beiteinu party appears to hold the balance of power.
Official results are expected on Wednesday morning.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, is vying to win a record fifth term in office. Mr Netanyahu, who leads the right-wing Likud party, has pledged to annex Jewish settlements and a swathe of other territory in the occupied West Bank if he is returned to power.
Palestinians, who seek a state in the West Bank, have warned such a move will kill any hopes for peace.
Mr Gantz, who leads the centrist Blue and White party, has not advocated any form of annexation though his position on the creation of a Palestinian state is unclear.
Mr Netanyahu called the snap election after failing to form a governing coalition in the wake of an election in April.
A revised exit poll released by Israel’s public broadcaster Kan early on Wednesday projected that Blue and White would win 32 seats and Likud 31 in the 120-seat Knesset.
In third place was the Israeli Arab Joint List with 13 seats; followed by Avigdor Lieberman’s secular nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party with nine; the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties with nine and eight respectively; the right-wing Yamina party with seven, and the left-wing Labour-Gesher and Democratic Union alliances with six and five respectively.
Channel 12 News put Blue and White and Likud level on 32 seats, while an updated poll Channel 13 News predicted that Blue and White would win 32 seats and Likud 30.
There was a muted response at Likud’s election night headquarters in Tel Aviv as the exit polls were released.
Hundreds of chairs for party supporters remained empty, as activists were kept outside the hall and leaders digested the numbers.
Likud’s foreign affairs director noted that Israeli exit polls had got things wrong in the past. Last time, they underestimated the number of votes for Likud and also for some of the religious parties allied to Mr Netanyahu.
“There is no point starting to work out a coalition based on these numbers as they will change,” Eli Hazan said.
But Blue and White was “cautiously optimistic” that Israel would get new leadership.
