A new poll by Maariv revealed that if elections were held today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition would win just 49 Knesset seats, compared to the opposition's automatic majority.
The poll, published Friday morning, follows the deepening IDF operation to take control of Gaza City and Netanyahu’s “Sparta speech,” which called for Israel to become more self-reliant.
In the poll, respondents were asked how they would vote if two new parties entered the race — “Bennett 2026” led by Naftali Bennett, and Yashar! led by Gadi Eisenkot — while all other parties remained unchanged.
The results gave the Likud party 25 Knesset seats, five more than the second-largest party, Bennett's, which is predicted to win 20 seats.
Following far behind the leading parties, the leftist "Democrats" would win 11 seats, while Yisrael Beytenu would win 10.
Leading the smaller parties is Eisenkot’s Yashar! with nine seats, and three parties which are predicted to win eight seats each: Shas, Otzma Yehudit, and United Torah Judaism 8.
Yesh Atid would win seven seats, while Hadash-Ta'al and Ra'am (United Arab List) would win five seats each. Blue and White would win four seats, making it the smallest party in the Knesset.
Balad and Religious Zionism would fail to pass the electoral threshold.
Divided into blocs, the coalition parties would win 49 seats, while the center-left would win 61 seats. The remaining 10 seats would be held by the Arab parties, which traditionally join neither coalition.