Likud gains seat in new i24NEWS poll after primaries

The turbulent Likud primaries have concluded and the party’s Knesset slate, excluding reserved slots, has been finalized. A new i24NEWS seat projection conducted through the Direct Polls institute shows Likud gaining one seat, while the four largest parties all register increases compared with last week’s poll.

According to the poll, if elections for the 26th Knesset were held today, Likud would win 31 seats, up from 30 in the previous i24NEWS survey.

Eisenkot’s Yashar! party also gains one seat, rising from 23 to 24 seats. The Democrats increase from 10 to 11, while Bennett’s Together party climbs from eight to nine seats.

The remaining parties show a more mixed picture.

United Torah Judaism loses one seat and stands at eight, while Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu also receives eight seats. Shas remains unchanged at eight seats.

Otzma Yehudit falls by one seat to six. Ra’am remains at five seats, as does the Religious Zionist Party, while Hadash-Ta’al loses one seat and also stands at five.

Several parties fail to cross the electoral threshold, including Moshe Feiglin’s Zehut, Balad, Yaron Zelekha’s Economic Party, Chili Tropper’s Beit Tzioni and Yoaz Hendel’s party.

Other parties receiving less than 1% of the vote include Gilad Erdan’s Unity Party, Blue and White, and Noam for Israel.

The poll puts the coalition at 58 seats, while the Arab parties hold 10 seats and the opposition has 52.

The figures do not give the current coalition a parliamentary majority on their own, with the results falling short of the 61 seats needed to form a government.

The survey was conducted by Direct Polls Ltd., headed by Zuriel Sharon, for i24NEWS on August 18, 2026. It used a digital system combined with a panel and surveyed 522 Israeli adults aged 18 and over, described as a representative sample of Israel’s population.

The poll has a statistical margin of error of ±4.2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

As with any poll, the results represent a snapshot of voter intentions at the time the survey was conducted and are subject to the stated margin of error.