Polls Open In Closely-Fought Israel Election

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Polls have opened in Israel's election as Benjamin Netanyahu fights to remain the country's prime minister.

More than 5.8 million people are eligible to vote up until 8pm GMT in 10,372 polling stations nationwide.

Voters will elect the 120-member parliament, casting ballots for a party list, rather than individual candidates.

After voting closes, it typically takes weeks of negotiations for a governing coalition to be formed.

Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union has been polling slightly ahead of Mr Netanyahu's Likud party - a majority of three or four seats, according to the latest polls, but neither political camp has a clear majority.

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Gallery: Israel Goes To The Polls In Tight Election

Isaac Herzog, co-leader of centre-left Zionist Union party, poses for a photograph at his party's headquarters in Tel Aviv

Mr Herzog places a note in the Western Wall, the holiest prayer site for Jews in Jerusalem

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A supporter of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party holds a campaign poster in Bnei Brak

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Moshe Kahlon is head of the new centrist party Kulanu (All of Us) and sits with supporters at a Tel Aviv shopping centre

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An Israeli soldier choosing a ballot from behind a voting booth near Ofakim

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Much will depend on which candidate the smaller, centrist parties choose to back, and the leaning of a joint list uniting Israel's four Arab parties, which is expected to come in third.

Mr Netanyahu is seeking a fourth term in office and has cast the threat to his reign as a foreign-orchestrated bid to install a leader who might agree to Palestinian statehood or nuclear diplomacy with Iran.

In a last-minute appeal to his hardline base, the 65-year-old reiterated that a Palestinian state would not be created on his watch.

He told a news website that turning over captured territory to the Palestinians would clear the way for Islamic extremists to take control and attack Israel.

"Whoever ignores that is burying his head in the sand," he said.

"The left is doing that, burying its head in the sand time after time."

His vow not to allow a Palestinian state goes back on a long-standing promise to the US, something that could strain troubled ties with Washington.

Mr Netanyahu brought the election on himself, calling the snap vote after firing centrist ministers from his fractious coalition just two years into its term.

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