Israelis were heading to the ballots on Tuesday in unprecedented fifth elections since 2019, as the country is facing a lingering deadlock that has paralyzed its political system for almost four years.

Some 6.78 million eligible voters could cast their votes in 12,495 polling stations, according to figures issued by the Central Elections Committee, which oversees elections in Israel. About 18,000 police officers were deployed throughout the country "for the purposes of preventing fraud attempts, managing traffic and keeping security," the committee said in a statement.

A one-day closure was imposed on the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip on Monday night, Israel's military said in a statement, citing fear of attacks that will disrupt the voting. During the closure, all the crossings between Israel and the Palestinian territories will be closed, except for humanitarian cases and medical emergencies.

A total of 40 parties are running for seats in the Israeli parliament, or Knesset. However, only about 11 of them are projected to pass the electoral threshold needed to enter the parliament, which now stands at 3.25 percent of the total votes.

For the first time in 13 years, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not running as an incumbent prime minister. Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader, is planning to return to power with his right-wing Likud party and a coalition of far-right and Jewish ultra-Orthodox.

Netanyahu had served as prime minister for 12 consecutive years before being ousted in June 2021 by a cross-partisan coalition led by current Prime Minister Yair Lapid. However, recent opinion polls predict no candidate would gain an outright majority to build a 61-member coalition in the 120-member Knesset, meaning weeks or even months of coalition-building negotiations and possibly another election.

The polls predict a tie between Netanyahu's bloc and a bloc of parties with diverse ideologies that are united only by the goal of preventing Netanyahu from returning to power due to the criminal trial he is facing over corruption charges.

The vote will end at 10 p.m. local time (2000 GMT) with results from exit polls expected immediately afterward. Official final results are expected by Thursday, according to the Central Elections Committee.

Lapid and his wife Lihi voted at the polling station in Ramat Aviv Gimel, an affluent neighborhood of Tel Aviv. "Vote wisely. Vote for the State of Israel, the future of our children and our future in general," he said in a video statement outside the polling station.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog voted in Jerusalem and called on Israelis to vote. "Millions of voters will go out today to vote and decide as to the future and direction of our nation," he said. "Exercise your democratic right, and go to vote!"