Israel Votes as a UN Panel Says the Killing Never Stopped

By Daniel Ward | Prodigal Breaking News | prodigalbreakingnews.com

The vote

About 7.3 million Israelis were eligible to vote Tuesday for the 120-seat Knesset, the first general election in nearly four years and the first since October 7, 2023. A majority takes 61 seats. Final pre-election polling averages gave Gadi Eisenkot's opposition bloc 54 seats and Netanyahu's bloc 50, so neither side had a clear path to a majority. Arab citizens, about 21 percent of Israelis, were widely seen as the deciding factor.

Turnout ran at a record pace. By 2 p.m. local time, 44.9 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots, the highest ever recorded at that hour, according to the Times of Israel. In the early afternoon, Netanyahu warned that Arab voters were "racing to the ballots" and accused activists of the Arab party Ra'am of "trying to steal the election from us." He offered no evidence. The Central Elections Committee said it rejected multiple claims of foul play and that polling stations would stay open past 10 p.m. for anyone still in line. When polls closed at 10 p.m., exit polls from Israel's three main broadcasters, Kan 11, Channel 12 and Channel 13, all projected a deadlock. They put Netanyahu's bloc at 50 seats and Eisenkot's bloc at 52 or 53, short of the 61 needed. Arab parties were projected at 17 to 18 seats; Channel 12 said 18 would be a record. Channel 14, seen as close to Netanyahu, projected 60 seats for his bloc. Exit polls often shift as real votes are counted.

Final results are expected by Friday and become official November 4. President Isaac Herzog then picks the candidate most likely to form a government, who gets up to 42 days to build a coalition. Until then, Netanyahu stays on as caretaker. Millions of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation cannot vote in this election.

The report

On Monday, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, created by the Human Rights Council in 2021 and chaired by Srinivasan Muralidhar, released its report to the General Assembly. The commission already concluded in September 2025 that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. The new report says Israeli forces kept committing "genocidal acts" despite the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that began last October.

For the West Bank, the commission found crimes against humanity, including extermination, torture, rape and persecution. It counted 254 Palestinians killed by air strikes in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, compared with six in the 15 years before. Gaza's Health Ministry says at least 74,500 people have been killed in the war.

Israel's mission in Geneva called the report part of a "misinformation campaign to demonize the State of Israel" and demanded the commission be dissolved. The commission is independent and does not speak for the UN as a whole.

The pattern

This is a follow-up to yesterday's story on Netanyahu, his generals and the Iran question. Israelis voted on who leads their country while a UN commission put a word on what that leadership has done in Gaza, and Israel rejected that word. Whoever forms the next government inherits both the ceasefire and the findings.

Notice the pattern. Interrupt it.

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Sources: Exit polls from Kan 11, Channel 12 and Channel 13 (via SFG Media and CNN); Times of Israel (live blog); Al Jazeera; The National; Reuters (via U.S. News); Al-Monitor; Democracy Now!; Prodigal Breaking News, Oct. 26.