An Israeli public opinion poll showed that the popularity of the “National Camp” , headed by Benny Gantz, has increased, and it is significantly superior to the “Likud” party, headed by current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The poll published by the Israeli newspaper "Maariv" on Friday showed that the "Religious Zionism" party, headed by extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, fell below the electoral threshold.

If elections were held for the Knesset now, the opposition parties, including the “National Camp,” along with the Arab parties, would obtain 79 seats, compared to 41 seats for the current coalition parties.

According to the results of the poll, the “National Camp” will get 43 seats, an increase of one seat from the results of last week’s poll, while “Likud” will get 18 seats, and the “There is a Future (Yesh Atid)” party, headed by opposition leader Yair Lapid, will get 13 seats.

The representation of the "Shas" party increased from 8 to 9 seats, while the "Israel Our Home" party settled at 8 seats, as well as the "United Torah Judaism" bloc, which obtained 7 seats. The representation of the "Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit)" party, headed by extremist Itamar Ben Ghafir gained from 6 to 7 seats, the representation of the Meretz Party increased from 4 to 5 seats, the coalition of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality and the Arab Movement for Change obtained 5 seats, and the Unified List obtained 5 seats.

On the other hand, the "Religious Zionism", "Labor" and "National Democratic Rally" parties did not exceed the electoral threshold by obtaining less than 3.25% of the votes, noting that the poll sample does not include the Palestinian community within the 1948 territories.

Gantz outperformed Netanyahu in terms of suitability to assume the position of prime minister, and 52% said that Gantz was more suitable, compared to 21% who considered Netanyahu to be more suitable.

The poll also indicated a decline in Netanyahu's popularity among his voters, in light of the war on Gaza, as 52% of them said that he is most suitable to head the government, while 26% of Likud voters said that Gantz is most suitable to assume the position.