40% of polls counted, Likud leads with 40 seats

By the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Likud Party took the lead with 40 seats in the 120-Knesset, with some 42.1 percent of the votes counted.

Gantz's Blue and White was in second place with 35 seats, while the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties each won seven seats. The once mighty Labor party was down to just six seats, the same number as Yisrael Beiteinu.

Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu party was on course to win five seats, while Hadash-Ta'al, Meretz and the Union of Right-Wing Parties were set to claim four seats apiece.

The results put the the rightist bloc in the lead with 67 seats, while the leftist bloc stands at 53 seats.