Sixteen months after losing power, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, is heading back to office in a stunning reversal of fortune, according to exit polls for Israel’s parliamentary election.
Data published by all three main news channels projected a slender overall majority for the bloc of right-wing and religious parties who have promised to support him.
His new coalition will include a large hard-right party, Religious Zionism, which according to the exit polls won up to 15 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
The Netanyahu bloc had won 61 or 62 seats, the smallest of majorities. Netanyahu’s own party Likud was set to be the biggest single group.
Yesh Atid, the centrist party of the prime minister Yair Lapid, will remain the