Israelis vote on Tuesday, 27 October, in the country's first parliamentary election since the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, according to n-tv.de. The ballot will decide whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains in power. The same outlet frames the choice starkly: whether he is seen as the guarantor of Israel's security, or as partly responsible for the deaths of 87 hostages.
Why it matters
The vote is the first national test of Israeli public opinion since the attack three years ago, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken captive into tunnels in Gaza, n-tv.de reports. That assault triggered the most brutal Israeli military campaign in the history of the Gaza Strip. According to n-tv.de, no other issue — not judicial reform, not social inequality, not the debate over military service, not the corruption trial — dominates public discussion and the mood of Israelis as much as 7 October and everything that followed.
A campaign shaped by the hostages
The fate of the captives has sat at the centre of the campaign. After an initial exchange freed 105 hostages six weeks after the abductions, more than a year passed without a further agreement, n-tv.de reports. The slogan "Bring them home" spread around the world, and a central square in Tel Aviv became "Hostage Square", where daily events pressed for another deal with the Islamists. These included readings, music, demonstrations and a replica tunnel shaft built to convey the captives' suffering to visitors. Families of the hostages organised into a vocal forum and applied moral pressure on Netanyahu's government, but the prime minister, in n-tv.de's account, turned a deaf ear. Two further deals in 2025 finally secured the release of all hostages still alive. By then, 87 of those abducted had died during two years of Hamas captivity.
According to n-tv.de, many Israelis hold their own prime minister responsible for those deaths alongside the Islamist killers, believing he did not do everything in his power to bring the hostages home alive. The outlet reports that shortly before a further deal, Netanyahu allowed himself to be pressured by his far-right coalition partner, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who threatened to bring down the government unless the agreement with Hamas was called off. Netanyahu chose his own hold on power, n-tv.de reports, and the deal did not materialise.
The "7" on the ballot
n-tv.de also recounts a detail that captures the campaign's atmosphere. Weeks ago, Netanyahu's government discussed whether holding the election on 27 October might send a negative signal to Israelis, because the date contains a "7" — like the 7 of 7 October 2023. The question raised was whether a date made up only of unburdened digits, from 1 to 6, or an 8 or a 9, would be more favourable for the premier's re-election chances. In the end, the date stayed as it was.
The outlet presents the episode as an anecdote rather than an answer to the larger question hanging over the ballot: how much influence the events of three years ago will have on the result. Other German outlets have taken up the same theme in the run-up to the vote, including tagesschau.de, which reported on young Israelis caught between trauma and anxiety about the future, and FAZ, which asked whether Netanyahu is finished. Spiegel examined how the prime minister has stayed in power despite scandals, while ZDFheute published an expert assessment of the Knesset election.
What to watch: whether the memory of 7 October and the hostage deaths weighs more heavily with voters than the security record Netanyahu will present, and whether the parties that have anchored his coalition retain enough seats to keep him in office.
