Israeli media: 54 per cent of Israelis support Hamas prisoner exchange deal

An Israeli opinion poll by Israeli newspaper Maariv conducted on Friday indicates that 54 per cent of Israelis support a prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, while 24 per cent reject it and 27 per cent said they did not have a specific answer.

Based on the poll results, if elections were held today, the opposition National Unity Party headed by Benny Gantz would obtain 23 of the 120 Knesset seats.

The Likud Party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would win 21 seats, the right-wing opposition Yisrael Beiteinu Party, headed by Avigdor Lieberman, would win 14 seats and the Yesh Atid Party, headed by opposition leader Yair Lapid, would win 13.

The Likud Party currently has 32 seats, the National Unity Party has 12, 24 for Yesh Atid and six for the Yisrael Beiteinu Party.

In total, the parties that support Netanyahu as prime minister would win 51 seats, while the parties opposed to him in office would win 59 seats, while the Arab representatives would win ten.

To form a government in the occupying state, obtaining the confidence of at least 61 representatives in the Knesset is necessary.

There does not seem to be a possibility of holding elections on the horizon after Netanyahu rejected elections in light of the continued aggression against Gaza.

According to the law, the current government was formed at the end of 2022 following general elections and is supposed to serve for four years unless early elections are held.

Calls are mounting in the occupying state to hold early elections, but the government’s dominance of the Knesset, with 64 representatives voting in its favour, prevents the Knesset from being dissolved.

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