JERUSALEM — Israelis from Tel Aviv and West Bank settlements, from Jerusalem and overseas, poured into polling booths Tuesday at the highest rate in decades for a pivotal election widely seen as a referendum on Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, and his record on the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.
The election, the first since the Hamas attack, which killed about 1,200 people and ignited three years of regional war, has centered on Netanyahu’s stewardship of national security and the economy at a time when Israel remains locked in military conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran and faces heavy international criticism.
