Netanyahu teetering in close election race

Early exit polls showed Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party neck-to-neck with Benny Gantz's Blue and White, with two polls giving the former army chief the edge over the prime minister.

By 6am about a quarter of the votes had been counted.

Revised surveys by Israeli TV stations, several hours after polls closed, gave Likud 30 to 33 of parliament's 120 seats, a slight drop from earlier forecasts, versus 32 to 34 for Blue and White.

Neither had enough support, at first glance, for a governing coalition of 61 legislators, and Netanyahu's ally-turned-rival, former Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, emerged as a likely kingmaker as head of the far-right Yisrael Beitenu party.

Gantz, said it appeared from the exit polls that Israel's longest-serving leader was defeated but that only official results would tell, the Reuters news agency reported.

In his own speech to Likud party faithful, Netanyahu, sipping water frequently and speaking in a hoarse voice, made no claim of victory or concession of defeat, saying he was awaiting a vote tally.