'Israel' divided, near point of no return: Officials

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Leaders within the Israeli occupation spoke Friday about the ongoing divide in "Israel" revealed by the results of the latest legislative elections.

Israeli occupation President Isaac Herzog said during a speech on the 27th anniversary of the killing of former Israeli occupation Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that "the complicated political status quo in Israel poses somewhat of a historic challenge for us."

"The results of the election showed that we are divided, and the responsibility from there on out is on all political players, especially the ones who have the upper hand and more political strength," Herzog added.

"A few days after Israel went into elections, it came back divided and angry yet again," outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said. "We must now decide where our state is headed. We are near the point of no return, but we can still change the direction we are headed."

Former Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured his victory in the Israeli elections on Thursday, as his far-right coalition made up the majority of the Knesset.

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According to results by the electoral commission, Netanyahu's Likud Party earned 32 seats in the Knesset, which has 120 seats. Two ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties put forward 18 candidates, with 14 others pertaining to the extreme-right alliance called Religious Zionism, giving Netanyahu's bloc a total of 64 seats.

In contrast, parties backing Yair Lapid, the Israeli caretaker prime minister, got 51 seats, making Netanyahu the winner.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the rise of extreme religious "right-wing" parties in the Israeli elections, according to TV samples, is "a natural result of the growing manifestations of extremism and racism in Israeli society."

"The Palestinian people will not stop their struggle to end the occupation, gain their freedom, and establish their independent state with Al-Quds as its capital," he said.

In a final swing at the premiership, Netanyahu allied with ultranationalist and outright terrorist MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, infamous for his raiding of Palestinian towns and Islamic holy places in occupied Palestine, such as Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The former PM's alliance could lead to sensitivities with the Israeli occupation's Western and Arab allies.

Netanyahu's opponents, on the other hand, are highly concerned over his prospected victory in the election, pledging to throw in everything they have to keep him out, fearing that a win from the Likud leader would see him tailoring the Israeli legal system to avert him a conviction over his corruption.

In late August, Netanyahu called for unity among the ranks of far-right Israeli parties, namely extremist Zionist Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party and Betzalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism party, Israeli media reported at the time.