Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc is projected to win 54 seats in Israel's 120-member Knesset, compared with 52 for the opposing Zionist bloc, according to a new Channel 13 poll released this week. Arab parties are projected to win the remaining 14 seats.

The numbers mark a shift from earlier surveys that showed the opposition ahead or the two blocs tied. Channel 13's previous poll had the blocs tied at 53 seats each, while other recent polls have also shown a closely divided political landscape.

The poll does not give Netanyahu's bloc the 61 seats required to form a majority on its own, meaning coalition negotiations would remain necessary if the election produced a similar result. Israel's proportional representation system routinely requires parties to form coalitions to govern.

Netanyahu's Likud party was projected to receive 18 seats, trailing Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party with 22. The B'Yachad list led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid was projected to win 12 seats, while the Democrats were projected to receive 10.

The Channel 13 survey questioned 886 people and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points. Polling remains fluid ahead of Israel's October 27 election, and recent surveys have continued to show neither major bloc with a clear path to 61 seats.