Netanyahu's bloc remains at 53 seats with all votes counted except "double-envelope" ballots, Israel's Channel 12 reported.

That leaves the bloc eight short of a majority, with Eisenkot's bloc at 48 and the Arab lists at 19.

Those remaining ballots could still shift the result. Israel's Central Election Committee estimates about 480,000 of them remain to be counted. They're cast by soldiers, diplomats, hospital patients and others voting outside their home polling stations.

Meanwhile, the opposition camp has reportedly contacted the Palestinian Joint List to "explore the possibility of future cooperation" and to coordinate on possibly replacing the Knesset speaker, Joint List head Ahmad Tibi told Al Jazeera.