Gaza residents watch Israel election, hoping to unseat Netanyahu as airstrikes continue

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — In the southern Gaza Strip , where Israeli airstrikes are still a regular occurrence despite a ceasefire, residents of the city of Khan Younis were following the results of Israel’s election closely, hoping that anyone but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will form the next government.

“All of their policies towards Gaza are tough, but we choose the lesser of two evils,” resident Ayman Ahmed said.

Ahmed said that he hoped Netanyahu’s main challenger, Gadi Eisenkot , would prevail, noting that he supports U.S. President Donald Trump's road map for Gaza .

The plan calls for disarming the Hamas militant group and installing a new U.S.-backed government. But it also requires Israel to withdraw forces and allow reconstruction to begin.

Most of Gaza’s 2 million people remain displaced, living in the bombed-out ruins of their former homes or in squalid tent camps.

Netanyahu agreed to the Trump plan, but never carried it out beyond the initial stage of a partial withdrawal and increased aid in exchange for the return of the final hostages, alive and dead, held by Hamas. The plan has been largely frozen for nearly a year.

In the rubble-strewn streets near the city’s Nasser Hospital, Mohammed Abed said that a Netanyahu win would be seen as a victory for his agenda, but that he didn’t expect major changes no matter who is in power.

Eisenkot is a former military chief who favors tough responses against Israel’s enemies.

“An Eisenkot victory will not dramatically change the situation, because their policies are almost similar,” Abed said. “In the end, it will be the same.”

Underscoring Abed's pessimism, two strikes in Khan Younis on Wednesday killed one man and wounded at least six other people, according to health officials at Nasser Hospital. Israel’s military didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

More than 1,550 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by the Israeli military since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began in October 2025, according to the territory’s health ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, doesn't distinguish between civilians and militants, though it says women and children make up roughly half of the dead.

Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 , killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and destroyed much of Gaza.

Hasan al-Masri, who was displaced from his home in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, said that he desperately hoped the election would bring change to Gaza.

“We pray to God that these elections bring a positive outcome for us,” he said. "We have been utterly devastated; nothing remains. They have killed our children, destroyed our homes, and everything we had is gone.”

The future of Gaza was barely an issue in the Israeli election campaign, and the only major candidate to talk in favor of the two-state solution was Yair Golan, the head of the small Democrats party.

Asked whether the possibility of a future Palestinian state was something that people in Gaza were hoping for, Ahmed said “only people outside Gaza care about these topics” and that their main concern was finding enough food to eat.

He said that he feared a Netanyahu win would bring more war, however, and more suffering.

“We support any effort to bring down Netanyahu,” he said.

Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo. and David Rising in Bangkok. contributed to this report.