Knesset

Opposition leader Benny Gantz will be asked to form a new government, Israel's president said on March 15, boosting his chances of ousting veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

It was a blow to Netanyahu, who is fighting for his political life amid unprecedented political deadlock and a criminal indictment for corruption, which he denies.

Turkey and Israel should begin focusing on practical issues as they repair their relationship following a six-year hiatus due to the Mavi Marmara massacre, Israel's parliamentary speaker has said, adding that focusing on issues that divide the two nations at the outset would lead nowhere.

President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos met with his Israeli counterpart Euven Rivlin during his official visit to Israel, Wednesday at the Presidential Hall in Jerusalem.

A controversial bill that would compel NGOs receiving most of their funding from foreign governments to declare it in official reports passed its first reading in the Israeli parliament early on Feb. 9.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held on to his job May 6, announcing that he had hammered together a new coalition government just ahead of a midnight legal deadline.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to form a new government within weeks after defying the polls to seal a clear election win, his rightwing Likud party said on March 18.
      
"The prime minister intends to begin forming the government immediately in order to finish the task within two to three weeks," a party statement said.
      

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the winner of the country's election held on March 17, after exit polls had first shown he was running neck and neck with the opposition Zionist Union.

According to Ynet News, Netanyahu's right-wing Likud is expected to have 29 seats in Parliament, a clear lead on Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union which is to get 24 seats.

Just after voting ended in Israel's parliamentary elections, the result looks too close to call, exit poll data suggests.

PM Netanyahu's Likud party and the opposition Zionist Union of Isaac Herzog are reported tied (with 27 seats in the 120-seat Parliament) in surveys of the public broadcasters Channel 10 and Channel 1, according to English-language Israeli media outlets.

Israel is voting in parliamentary elections Tuesday to elect 120 deputies for the Knesset.

Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local time and are to close at 10 p.m., with nearly six million Israelis eligible to vote, according to reports of the BBC News.

Six days before Israel votes in a snap general election, the centre-left Zionist Union opened a lead of several points over the ruling rightwing Likud party, a poll found on March 11.