Netanyahu's bid to extend voting hours meets Eisenkot's opposition

Spain's election explainer maps the parties behind Israel's two main blocs, alongside families demanding an inquiry into October 7.

Channel: RTVE Noticias ·

SpainStory of October 28, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of RTVE Noticias's most watched videos since yesterday, with 18,926 views.

RTVE Noticias: The news division of RTVE, Spain's public broadcaster. 2.7M subscribers and 2B views.

Israel vota | Todas las claves de unas elecciones que son decisivas para Netanyahu | RTVE Noticias

Things we can learn from the video

Press to jump

0:19The afternoon turnout update accompanies Netanyahu's appeal for right-wing voters to vote in large numbers.
1:11Netanyahu requests longer voting hours, while Eisenkot opposes extending them.
1:27Families of October 7 victims urge political change and a commission of inquiry.
2:24Gómez Díaz explains the electoral threshold and identifies the parties aligned with Netanyahu.
3:20The opposition parties and Arab parties are mapped separately.
4:32A governing majority requires 61 of the Knesset's 120 seats; the segment also addresses the results timetable.

Benjamin Netanyahu calls for longer voting hours; his principal challenger, Gadi Eisenkot, opposes the request. Their disagreement features in an election-day report that moves from crowded polling stations to the parliamentary arithmetic that will determine who can govern.

RTVE Noticias, the news service of Spain's public broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española, reports exceptionally high participation in Israel's October 27 election, the country's first legislative vote since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza. Its afternoon update puts turnout at 56 percent, describing participation as the highest since 1973.

Reporter Laura Pavía shows Netanyahu urging right-wing Jewish voters to turn out in large numbers, while Eisenkot appeals for civic participation. Families of people killed in the October 7 attacks make a different appeal: vote for political change and for a commission to investigate what happened.

The studio explanation by journalist Laura Gómez Díaz then separates the competing political camps. Alongside Netanyahu's Likud, she lists Religious Zionism, Jewish Power, United Torah Judaism and Shas as parties aligned with him.

The opposition includes Eisenkot's Yashar, the Together alliance associated with former prime minister Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu and Yair Golan's Democrats. Arab parties are presented separately. That distinction matters: opposition to Netanyahu does not, by itself, establish a single governing coalition.

Eisenkot, a former Israeli military chief who served in the wartime unity government, is Netanyahu's main challenger. But voters elect parliament rather than directly choosing a prime minister. Gómez Díaz explains that parties must clear an electoral threshold of 3.25 percent to enter the Knesset, whose 120 seats make 61 the number needed for a majority.

The projections shown in this election-day broadcast leave the political field fragmented, without an immediate clear majority. Its central question is therefore not simply which party finishes first, but which combination of parties can assemble enough parliamentary support to govern.