New coalition crisis awaits Israel as vote count ends

By Mustafa Deveci

JERUSALEM (AA) - The results of Israel’s early general elections show that a new coalition crisis awaits the country.

The Israeli Central Election Committee completed the vote count of Tuesday’s polls and shared the results with the public.

The tallies resulted in the Likud Party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu getting 30 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament.

The Yesh Atid party led by Netanyahu's rival, Yair Lapid, came in second with 17 seats.

The ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas party, which is headed by Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, won nine seats in the Knesset.

The centrist Blue and White party of Defense Minister Benny Gantz, known officially as the Israel Resilience Party, gained eight, while the center-left Israeli Labor party, the nationalist Yamina party, the Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party and the United Torah Judaism party gained seven each.

The Joint List alliance of Arab parties, the New Hope party of Gideon Saar, the far-right Religious Zionism alliance and the left-wing Meretz party won six apiece.

Meanwhile, The United Arab List (Ra'am) party led by Mansour Abbas managed to secure four seats.

The specter of fifth elections looms in Israel as Netanyahu’s camp, comprising Likud and allied right-wing parties, fell short of winning the 61 seats in the Knesset required to form a government, gaining only 59.

The polls showed that parties in the left bloc also failed to reach the required seats to form a coalition government.