Tel aviv: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc is projected to win 52 seats in the 120-member Knesset, trailing the opposition by five seats, according to a poll released Wednesday by Channel 12. The opposition parties, excluding Arab factions, are predicted to secure 57 seats, while Arab parties are expected to win 11 seats, leaving neither main bloc with the 61 seats needed to form a government.

According to Anadolu Agency, this survey marks Channel 12's first poll since parties filed their candidate lists for the upcoming October 27 election. The poll results show former army chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party leading with 25 seats, ahead of Netanyahu's Likud party, which is projected to secure 21 seats.

Further projections indicate that former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's Together party could win 13 seats, followed by the Democrats with 10 seats and Yisrael Beiteinu with nine seats. The United Torah Judaism party is expected to take eight seats, Shas seven, and Otzma Yehudit six, while the Religious Zionism and Amkha Yisrael parties are each projected to win five seats.

Arab parties are anticipated to secure a total of 11 seats, with the Joint List receiving seven seats and the United Arab List obtaining four seats. The coalition arithmetic appears complicated, as most leaders of Jewish parties have ruled out the possibility of relying on Arab lawmakers to form a government, despite the 68 seats projected for parties outside Netanyahu's bloc.

A total of 38 parties have filed candidate lists for the election, but current polls suggest that only around 13 parties would enter parliament. The Israeli news website Walla reported that the poll was conducted by the Lazar Research Institute among 506 Israelis, although the published results did not specify a margin of error.