Israeli opposition faces major hurdles in bid to oust Netanyahu

Israel's opposition on Tuesday vowed to try to form a government, though their path to power remained unclear with most leaders firmly against working with parties representing Palestinians with Israeli citizenship.

In a joint statement, the five party leaders said they would "act immediately" to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government from power and prevent a new election following last week's inconclusive vote.

But it failed to explain how it would form a majority government without the Palestinian parties, which won a record 19 seats in the Knesset in the general election.

The four parties said they would recommend to President Isaac Herzog that he task opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot with trying to form a government, and committed to establishing a "Zionist" government based on the Yashar leader's four principles which he says Palestinian parties must accept.

These include recognising Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and denouncing Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

Last week's vote saw Netanyahu's coalition lose its majority in the Knesset but remain the largest bloc with 53 seats. The prime minister's Likud finished the largest party with 27 seats.

Eisenkot's bloc won just 48 seats, leaving them 13 seats short of a majority in the 120-member Knesset.

His disparate coalition includes Yashar, the hard-right Yisrael Beiteinu party, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid's Together alliance, and the centre-left Democrats.

Record turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel delivered Arab parties their highest share of the vote ever. The Joint List – an alliance of three mostly Palestinian parties – won 11 seats while Ra'am, which took part in a previous Israeli government, got eight.

Every Jewish-Israeli party except for Yair Golan's Democrats has ruled out working with Arab parties.

Golan met with Joint List leaders Yosef Jabareen and Ahmed Tibi ahead of the opposition talks on Tuesday and pledged to tackle surging crime rates in Arab communities.

But Avigdor Lieberman, the ultranationalist leader of Yisrael Beiteinu, is dead set against working with any of the Palestinian parties.

Arab leaders have offered to work with the opposition to oust Netanyahu, though it remains unclear what arrangement

Ra'am's Mansour Abbas has indicated he could enter a coalition government, though the party's eight seats would not be enough to hand Eisenkot a majority. The Joint List are unlikely to formally enter the government but could agree to support a minority government in the Knesset.

Netanyahu, who also does not have a path to forming a majority government, on Monday called for a "broad national government" with him at the helm.

Opposition leaders have been staunchly opposed to leaving Netanyahu in government, pointing to his corruption charges, his failure to prevent the 7 October attack, and his attack on the Supreme Court.