He had hoped to win a double-digit number of Knesset seats, but the exit polls suggested he had fallen well short. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party was projected to win six seats in the exit polls published by Channels 12 and 13, while Kan 11 gave it seven. Netanyahu's entire political bloc, meanwhile, was projected to fall from 64 seats to 50. Ben-Gvir did not immediately respond to the exit polls, arriving at his party's headquarters in Modi'in shortly before midnight, where he warned against forming a unity government with Gadi Eisenkot.
Addressing party activists, Ben-Gvir said: "Tonight, we are marking another chapter in the development of Otzma Yehudit. I remember that two Knesset terms ago, this party barely existed on the political map. After that, we fought for a single seat, and tonight, for the first time, an independent party running on its own has won the support of hundreds of thousands of citizens."
Itamar Ben-Gvir addresses supporters Tuesday night after exit polls projected six to seven seats for Otzma Yehudit
(Photo: Lior Sharon)
"The night is still young. We believe and hope that we are close to forming a right-wing government, with God's help," he added.
Ben-Gvir went on to praise the policies he had advanced during his time in office. "In any case, we are proud of our path, of the reforms we promised the public and delivered. I am proud that last time I promised to pass a law imposing the death penalty on terrorists, and we delivered," he said.
"I heard some people saying that the Arabs didn't like the demolition of homes in the Negev. I'm proud that we demolished 10,000 illegal homes in the Negev," he continued.
Turning to Palestinian security prisoners, Ben-Gvir said: "I can already hear the hopes of the terrorists in prison, hoping that their summer camps will return. We will continue fighting to make sure those hopes are not realized. We didn't enter politics to apologize for our principles."
Later in his speech, Ben-Gvir attacked the possibility of forming a unity government with Yashar! party chairman Gadi Eisenkot.
"Unfortunately, tonight I'm hearing that some people are talking about a unity government with Eisenkot," he said. "That's exactly the scenario I warned against, the one our friends in Likud made a point of denying and saying wasn't true. And now, just two minutes after the exit polls were published, we're hearing people talking about a unity government with Eisenkot. That would be a government of paralysis."
As a teenager, Ben-Gvir was active in the Kach movement founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane. He was first elected to the Knesset in 2021 after a series of unsuccessful attempts, running on a joint electoral list with Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism party. The two parties also ran together in the previous election.
Following that election, Ben-Gvir was appointed national security minister. During his tenure, the number of murders in Israel's Arab communities surged to unprecedented levels. Upon taking office, he moved to expand the number of civilians permitted to carry firearms and repeatedly intervened in police affairs. Among other things, he sought to promote the arrest of protesters blocking roads, blocked the promotion of police officers and attempted to remove Tel Aviv District Police Commander Ami Eshed from his post.
In this election, Ben-Gvir ran independently, without joining forces with other parties.