Polling stations in the Israeli elections have closed, and votes are being counted. According to early indications, there is no clear winner in the election.
Exit polls suggest that Yair Lapid's bloc has won the largest number of seats in parliament. However, that bloc has not secured a majority, meaning the result itself does not provide a clear majority for forming a government.
The same projections suggest that Netanyahu's party, Likud, will be the largest single party in parliament. This further complicates the picture, as the largest number of seats for one bloc and the largest single party do not guarantee the ability to form a majority.
With vote counting ongoing and the picture incomplete, the question remains open as to what follows after the results are announced. BBC's Hugo Bachega is looking at exactly that question — the possible next steps after the election.
The key elements so far are: closed polling stations, vote counting, the absence of a clear winner, the projection that Lapid's bloc has the most seats but not a majority, and the projection that Likud is the largest single party.
Until the final results are announced, it remains unclear how relations in parliament will settle and who might form the government. Exit polls currently provide only a rough outline of the seat distribution, and the actual result will depend on the counting of all votes.
