Israel may have just had one of the most consequential elections in its history, but exactly what the consequences will be is still far from clear. 

On Tuesday, amid thunderstorms in Jerusalem and last-minute campaigning by politicians, Israelis turned out to vote in record numbers in the first election since Hamas’s attacks on 7 October. Against a backdrop of the country’s devastating war in Gaza – as well as ongoing fighting on the Lebanon border and a surge of extremist settler violence against Palestinians on the West Bank – the stakes of this election are high. The results will be viewed, variously, as a verdict on Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future, as a test for the country’s security and as an attempt to safeguard Israel’s democracy. 

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