New Israeli poll shows Netanyahu's party advancing

13/9/2024 19:05

        An opinion poll on Friday showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party would form the largest single party in parliament if an election were held now, underlining a gradual recovery since the Oct. 7 attacks last year.
        
        The poll, published in the left-wing Ma'ariv daily, showed Likud winning 24 seats, against 32 at present, its highest score in the Ma'ariv poll since Oct. 7. It put the National Unity Party led by centrist former general Benny Gantz on 21.
        
        Netanyahu's right-wing coalition with a clutch of nationalist-religious and ultra-Orthodox parties would lose any election held now, with 53 seats in the 120-seat parliament, against 58 for the main opposition bloc, according to the poll.
        
        But Likud's advance shows how far Netanyahu has moved since last year when his standing was hit by public fury at the security failures when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.