Israel could be in for weeks of political haggling after exit polls and partial official results showed neither Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition nor the opposition bloc led by former general Gadi Eisenkot had won enough seats to form a government.

The polls published by Israel’s major TV networks show Netanyahu’s governing bloc tied with the opposition grouping led by Eisenkot on 51 seats each, short of the 61 seats needed to form a majority coalition government.

Speaking at 3 am local time, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister vowed to assemble a coalition through agreements between his Likud party, far-right factions and Jewish religious parties.

“We must put in place a strong government of the right,” Netanyahu told cheering supporters. “The Jewish and Zionist majority must unite,” he added.

Eisenkot, speaking to his own supporters in Tel Aviv, said earlier in the evening that “people decided in favour of change” and Netanyahu should have “announced today his retirement from politics”.

The election was marked by a record participation by Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin, a discriminated minority that makes up about 20% of the country’s population. Many in the group have sought a stronger political voice after decades of boycotting polls in the Jewish state. Millions of other Palestinians living under Israeli rule in the occupied West Bank and Gaza cannot vote, leading to accusations of apartheid.

Exit polls predicted Palestinian parties could win about 18 seats, up from 10. However, their role in any coalition would be difficult. Netanyahu has said it was “out of the question” to have a government backed by Palestinian parties, while Eisenkot has said Arab-led parties do not meet Zionist criteria to govern.

With roughly a third of ballots counted, Israel’s Central Elections Committee reported 28 seats went to Likud and 21 to Eisenkot’s party, Yashar, although that is expected to change significantly as the official count comes in. Israel’s voting system can see seat numbers swing wildly on fractions of percentage points.

Tuesday’s election comes as Israel is fighting accusations of genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank. Netanyahu is separately wanted by the international criminal court (ICC) for alleged war crimes.

The election was widely seen as a referendum on the 77-year-old leader, and the vote drew 77.7% turnout, the highest since 1999.

While Israeli TV stations’ exit polls suggested support for Netanyahu’s wider religious-national coalition dropped, a deadlock could work in his favour.

A ​stalemate would allow the prime minister to remain in power in a caretaker capacity, while he stymies opposition attempts to form a coalition and even force a snap election. ​This has previously led to back-to-back elections – between 2019 and 2022, Israel held five elections.

Earlier exit polls had Eisenkot winning most seats in the Knesset by a slight margin. Israeli exit polls are often revised after publication and are notoriously imprecise, with the final count often swinging by several seats.

Opposition figures were quick to cast the exit polls as a defeat for Netanyahu, who is entangled in a long-running corruption trial on charges he denies, and has been blamed domestically for a lack of preparedness for the 2023 Hamas attacks.

Another opposition figure, and former prime minister, Yair Lapid said: “Netanyahu’s bloc has suffered a crushing defeat. This is a total collapse. The public has told them to get out.”

Netanyahu and several other parties attempted to keep polling stations open beyond their 10 pm deadline, but it was refused by the Central Elections Committee. The prime minister had suggested publicly that efforts were being made by the “left and Arabs” to steal the election, a claim rejected by the committee.