Netanyahu, Gantz go head-to-head in new Israeli election polls

All polls see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and Benny Gantz's National Unity Party as the two biggest parties by far, with opposition leader MK Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party trailing behind in a new round of polls released by Israel's Channel 12, Channel 13 and Channel 14 on Thursday evening.

Netanyahu and Gantz are head-to-head in the polls by Channel 12 and Channel 14, who give them 28 mandates each. Channel 13 projects 28 mandates for Gantz, but only 24 for Netanyahu's Likud.

Channel 12 and Channel 14 additionally asked who the public sees as most fit to serve as Prime Minister. Channel 12's poll saw 37% prefer Benny Gantz over Netanyahu with 36%. In Channel 14's poll, 47% preferred Gantz over the current Prime Minister, who only received 38% of the votes.

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Looking at the possible blocs, Channel 12 projected the opposition to receive 61 mandates, plus 5 mandates from Hadash-Ta'al, and Netanyahu's bloc would only get 54 mandates. Channel 13 gave the opposition 61 seats as well, while the current coalition would only receive 50 mandates and Hadash-Ta'al-Balad would see an additional 9 mandates.

Channel 14's poll is the most hopeful for Netanyahu, as his coalition would receive 56 seats, while the opposition would get 59 seats and Hadash-Ta'al five seats.

Yesh Atid received 18 mandates in the Channel 12 poll, 17 mandates from Channel 13 and only 14 from Channel 14. 

The Haredi Shas party led by Aryeh Deri was projected to receive 10 mandates by Channel 12, 9 mandates by Channel 13 and 10 by Channel 14.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism party, running together, ended up with 10 seats in Channel 12's poll, 10 seats on Channel 13 and 11 seats on Channel 14.

All polls projected the Haredi United Torah Judaism party to receive 7 mandates. Hadash-Ta'al, Yisrael Beytenu, Meretz and Ra'am all received between 6 and 4 seats and are close to the electoral threshold. 

Balad and Labor were both projected to not receive enough seats to cross the threshold by Channel 12 and Channel 14, while Channel 13 gave Balad 5 mandates.