Benjamin Netanyahu in close fight for survival in Israeli election

Benjamin Netanyahu could be scrambling for his political survival over the coming days, after Israel election exit polls suggested neither he nor the opposition had gained a majority in parliament.

The unofficial polls released late on Tuesday evening showed the prime minister’s ruling Likud party marginally behind retired general Benny Gantz and his Blue and White party. Critically, neither had a clear route to form a majority government.

Post-voting polls have proved unreliable in the past. With both men almost certainly requiring support from smaller parties, minor differences in official results could significantly alter the makeup of Israel’s next government.

Netanyahu has clambered to extend his record-breaking time as prime minister by forging alliances with hardline religious politicians and appealing to far-right ultranationalists.

The 69-year-old leader is fighting not only for his political life but also his freedom. Pre-trial hearings for three corruption cases against him are just weeks away and a majority in the 120-seat parliament could help grant him immunity from prosecution.

At times appearing frantic, Netanyahu rushed to rally his supporters on Tuesday with alarmist threats that “leftists” and politicians from the country’s Arab minority were on the brink of toppling him.

After casting his ballot in Jerusalem, he toured the city with a megaphone warning the election was extremely tight. “Do you want a leftwing government with the Arab parties?” he threatened. “So go to vote!”

Running against him, Gantz has headed a campaign squarely focused on Netanyahu’s divisive politics and personal scandals, presenting himself as a clean and responsible alternative.

“Today, we are voting for change,” the Blue and White party leader said. “We will succeed in bringing hope, all of us together, without corruption and without extremism.”

To win support from Israeli rightwingers and settlers, both men have attempted to sell the promise of an expansionist Israel that extends its borders deep into Palestinian territory.

Netanyahu vowed last week to declare up to a third of the occupied West Bank as part of Israel if he was re-elected and Gantz swiftly accused his political opponent of stealing his idea.

One voter, a 40-year-old venture capitalist, said there were few options for Israelis who were not rightwing. A big factor why he voted for Gantz was to end Netanyahu’s political career. “I think it’s crucial he does not win,” said Boaz, asking only to give his first name.

Gantz, he believed, was also more likely to make serious efforts to come to an agreement with the Palestinians. “If we don’t give it a chance, we have a problem,” he said. “Our moral society has the potential to collapse.”

Netanyahu appeared to narrowly beat Gantz in an April election, but he failed to form a government and so forced a repeat vote to give himself another chance.

An inconclusive result in which neither party has a clear lead could plunge Israel further into political mayhem, with the prospect of weeks of tense deal-making or even a third election.

President Reuven Rivlin, who will pick a candidate he believes has the best chance to form a government, said he would do everything in his power to avoid “another election campaign”.

Netanyahu’s attempts in May failed after ally-turned-rival, Avigdor Lieberman, refused to join the coalition government unless the prime minister agreed to reign in Jewish ultra-Orthodox politicians. Lieberman, a staunch secularist, has seen his popularity spike and he could come out of the election as a kingmaker.

Scorned by his former right-hand man, Netanyahu unleashed his Likud party’s campaigners on Lieberman’s Russian-speaking base.

“Bibi has been meeting Russian people, even trying to speak a little Russian,” said Roman Sokolov, a Likud member in Jerusalem.

Across the country, political banners have be hung from buildings, bridges and even on the backs of cars.

On election day, Israel’s military said it had closed all crossings with the West Bank, where more than 2.5 million Palestinians live under Israeli rule but cannot vote, and Gaza, where 2 million more live under a blockade.

Inside Israel, Palestinian citizens make up close to a fifth of the 9 million population, although many boycott elections. This year, Arab parties ran under a single alliance in an attempt to raise their joint influence.

Related: ‘We don’t care who wins’: young Gazans see little choice in Israel’s elections

As in previous elections, Netanyahu has ramped up anti-Arab rhetoric to appeal to the far right. Last week, Facebook temporarily shut down a chatbot on his official page for breaching the company’s hate speech policy after it warned of Arabs who “want to destroy us all”.

The Likud party installed dozens of cameras outside Arab polling stations in what was widely seen as an attempt to intimidate members of the minority from not voting.

Speaking at a polling station in Jaffa, Abed Abu Shhadeh said he believed Netanyahu’s scaremongering might have backfired. “Netanyahu’s political discourse gave Arabs a sense of importance – that their vote does matter,” said the 31-year-old, an Arab city councillor for Tel Aviv-Jaffa, where there is a substantial Palestinian population.

Nearby, Lisa, also a Palestinian citizen of Israel, said she would vote for the Arab alliance. “It’s the only party that shakes the status quo,” she said, complaining the country had become “rightwing and fascist” after passing a law last year that declared that only Jews had the right of self-determination in the country.

“I don’t want this state to be a Jewish state,” said the 31-year-old, who asked to only give her first name. “It’s a democracy for Jews and a sort of dictatorship for Arabs.”