Further TV poll shows Eisenkot’s Yashar party gaining strength

The Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday’s events as they unfold.

New TV poll shows Eisenkot gaining strength

Former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar party would pull ahead of Naftali Bennett’s center-right Together alliance with Yesh Atid if elections were held today, a Channel 12 News poll finds.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party remains the largest faction with 24 seats in the poll, while Eisenkot trails behind the premier with 22.

Bennett, allied with his former partner in government Yair Lapid, is polling at 17 seats.

Overall, the survey aired tonight puts the Zionist anti-Netanyahu bloc at 58 seats total, beating out the current coalition’s projected 52 seats.

Both Arab parties projected to make it into the Knesset, Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am, coming to 10 seats in total.

Neither the Zionist opposition or coalition are projected to win the 61 seats needed to form a government.

The next-largest party in tonight’s Channel 12 poll is The Democrats, led by Yair Golan, which would rake in 10 seats.

Yisrael Beytenu, the secularist opposition party run by former defense minister Avigdor Liberman, and the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Shas party, are projected to win nine seats each.

Itamar Ben Gvir’s ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party is projected to win eight seats, while the Haredi United Torah Judaism would win seven.

Both Ra’am, a moderate Islamist party, and the predominantly Arab Hadash-Ta’al alliance, receive five seats apiece. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party barely passes the threshold with four seats.

The Arab nationalist Balad party, Benny Gantz’s Blue and White, and The Reservists all fail to cross the threshold needed to make it into the Knesset.

When polled about who they would prefer as prime minister, the most popular contender against Netanyahu is Eisenkot, as opposed to Bennett or Liberman.

When up against Eisenkot, Netanyahu polls at 37% support against Eisenkot’s 36%. Netanyahu is preferred by 40% of those surveyed when placed against either Bennett or Liberman, who poll at 32% and 23%, respectively.

Lebanon state media says Israeli strike hits south

Lebanese state media says an Israeli strike hit the country’s south.

“Israeli warplanes carried out an airstrike targeting the area between the southern Lebanese towns of Qantara and Deir Seryan,” the state-run National News Agency says.

There is no immediate word on the target of the strike.

Israel to send official delegation of experts to assist quake-stricken Venezuela tomorrow

Israel will send a joint delegation from the Foreign Ministry and the IDF to Venezuela tomorrow to assist in the aftermath of the powerful earthquakes that struck the country, the ministry announces in a statement.

Ambassador Yoed Magen, who grew up in Venezuela, will lead the Foreign Ministry’s activities in the delegation, while the military delegation will be headed by Home Front Command Chief of Staff Brig. Gen. Elad Edri, the statement adds.

The delegation includes engineering professionals and other experts from the Home Front Command, as well as Foreign Ministry representatives, while experts from the National Emergency Management Authority are expected to join the group at a later stage.

The move was decided following an assessment led by the National Security Council, the ministry adds.

Add ToI as a preferred source on Google

UAE lifts war-related ban on travel to Lebanon

The UAE has said its nationals can travel to Lebanon, effective today, lifting a weeks-long ban in place because of the Middle East war and concerns about Iran’s influence.

The foreign ministry announces that “it will allow UAE citizens to travel to the sisterly Lebanese Republic, starting from Monday, June 29, 2026,” the official WAM news agency reports.

The ministry asks citizens to register with its consular services platform before traveling to Lebanon.

The United Arab Emirates banned travel for Emirati nationals to Lebanon in April as well as to Iraq and Iran, citing regional developments including the Middle East war.

During the war, halted by an April ceasefire, Gulf states bore the brunt of Iran’s retaliatory aerial campaign following US and Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic beginning on February 28.

Earlier on Monday flights resumed between Tehran and Dubai, Iranian state TV and other media reported, for the first time since the war.