Israel sets October date for first elections since Hamas attacks in 2023

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has led the most far-right government in Israel’s history for the past several years. Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA View image in fullscreen The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has led the most far-right government in Israel’s history for the past several years. Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA Israel sets October date for first elections since Hamas attacks in 2023 Vote will allow Israelis to pass judgment on Benjamin Netanyahu and his handling of conflicts in Gaza and Iran Middle East crisis live – latest updates Israel will hold national elections in late October, giving its citizens their first chance to pass judgment on the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu , and his coalition since the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023. The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, will be dissolved on Friday. With just a few days left in session, the most far-right government in Israel’s history is now rushing to pass several controversial laws in a bid to bolster its position before polling day, which is set for 27 October. A deadly campaign of extremist violence to expand Israeli control in the occupied West Bank is expected to continue until election day, as settler militants and their political backers exploit their seat at the cabinet table. Netanyahu, 76, may be fighting for his personal freedom as well as his political future. He is on trial for corruption, despite interventions from Donald Trump calling for a pre-emptive pardon in the long-running case. Current polling indicates voters will kick him out of office, although the man who has led Israel for much of the last three decades is a consummate political survivor who has repeatedly defied expectations. It was on his watch that Hamas broke through the fence around Gaza to kill nearly 1,200 people, the majority of them civilians, on the bloodiest day in Israel’s history. View image in fullscreen Protesters in Tel Aviv gather to demand a full investigation into the events leading up to the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images Three years of regional conflict have followed, including this year’s war on Iran which most Israelis believe the country lost, and a campaign in Gaza deemed genocidal by a UN commission , academics, legal scholars, Israeli and international rights groups and a significant portion of diaspora Jews. Yet Netanyahu will see out his full term, the first Israeli prime minister to achieve that feat in decades. Complex coalition politics make early elections a feature of political life in Israel and the last time an election was held on schedule was 1988. He has put national security at the heart of his campaign, with an “unrelenting message” that only he can keep Israelis safe, according to the political analyst and polling expert Dahlia Scheindlin. “Given this government’s record, it’s either the most sophisticated, if cryptic, strategy ever – or desperate. Perhaps both,” Scheindlin wrote in a recent column for I