Benjamin Netanyahu, Gadi Eisenkot vie for leadership in first election since October 7 attacks

At Tel Aviv’s famous Carmel Market, stall owners and patrons were abuzz with chatter about whether they had voted and whom they had voted for.

Bar, a student, said, she was desperate for an end to Netanyahu’s government.

“We really want change,” she said, saying she favoured either Eisenkot or the secular right-wing Netanyahu critic Avigdor Lieberman.

Stall-owner Dudi said: “I don’t know if Netanyahu, but I want the right side to rise.”

Tiferet, visiting from the southern city of Ashkelon, near the Gaza border, said she had not decided who deserved her vote. Keeping Israel safe and animal welfare were her top priorities.

“People here don’t understand what it was like on October 7,” she said. “We need someone much more extreme, much stronger.”