Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces one of the toughest tests of his tumultuous political career to date as Israel prepares to vote in the first national elections since the 7 October terror attacks .

With around four million voters expected to cast their ballots on Tuesday, public reckoning over the 2023 Nova massacre remains front and centre. Recent polling by the Israel Democracy Institute found 68 per cent of Jewish Israelis consider October 7 a central factor in deciding which party to vote for.

Netanyahu has spent the better part of three decades branding himself Israel’s “ Mr Security” but questions remain over his handling of the worst civilian attack in Israel’s history.

In spite of having guided his coalition through a full four-year term in the Knesset — a rare feat in Israel’s chronically volatile parliament — he enters polling day hemmed in by compounding legal entanglements and public fury over the events of the last three years.

The fallout from the October 7 massacre continue to loom…