Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is set to be the largest party in Israel’s parliament after yesterday’s election, according to exit polls – while the country’s Arab parties’ vote has soared.
But with neither Netanyahu nor his centre-right challenger Gadi Eisenkot winning a clear majority, prolonged coalition negotiations are likely to follow.
It is the first election in Israel since the 7 October 2023 attacks and wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
Observers have described it as the most consequential election in Israel’s history and a referendum on Netanyahu.
Is ferritin face real? What iron levels can really tell you
Ferritin face is a trend sweeping social media, but is it real? Here is everything you need to know.
What is ferritin face?
The term, trending on social media outlets like TikTok, refers to a supposed symptom of a lack of ferritin – the protein that stores iron in the body – affecting a person’s complexion.
People have attributed everything from dull or pale skin and dark circles under the eyes to a generally exhausted-looking complexion to low ferritin.
What is ferritin?
- 1Your ferritin levels show how good your body’s iron stores are, while haemoglobin is the protein in red blood cells which carries oxygen.
- 2When haemoglobin is low, blood cannot carry as much oxygen – a condition known as anaemia.
- 3However, iron stores can become depleted before that happens, meaning someone can be iron-deficient and have symptoms without being anaemic.
Is ferritin face real?
Ferritin face is not widely recognised among GPs, and not a medical term or diagnosis.
Some of the changes people describe as “ferritin face”, such as paler skin and dark eye circles, can occur with iron deficiency.
However, Dr Max Draper, GP at MyAtlas Health Clinic told The i Paper it’s “certainly not diagnostic”.
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The signs of low iron
- Other symptoms include hair loss, spoon-shaped nails, cold hands and feet, and odd cravings called pagophagia – such as craving ice – and being drawn to the smell of petrol, paint or the desire to chew paper or clay.
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How much benefits payments will rise by after the Budget
Benefit claimants are expected to see their payments go up in line with inflation.
What’s happening to benefits?
Benefit claimants will see their payments boosted next year in a move that could cost the Government up to £5.5bn, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
Some 10 million Britons claiming working-age benefits are set to see a rise of at least 3.5 per cent from next spring, with ministers expected to increase rates in line with inflation.
What’s happening to benefits?
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has also confirmed that it will not freeze benefits, with the uplift rates set to be confirmed in the Budget on Wednesday.
Disability and carers’ benefits – such as personal independence payment (PIP) and carer’s allowance – must rise at least in line with inflation.
However, ministers can decide whether to raise, cut or freeze most other working-age benefits, such as child benefit.
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What it means for pounds and pence
- 1The Resolution Foundation said that, from April, the standard allowance in universal credit for a single person over 25 will rise by 4.3 per cent (or £4.23) to £102.28 a week. It will rise by £6.63 to £160.55 a week for couples.
- 2This would mean a single person under 25 on universal credit could see a rise of £150 a year, while a couple over the age of 25 will see their payments rise by nearly £350 a year.
- 3Claimants may also see further energy bills support announced in the Budget, but it remains to be seen how much this could be and who would be eligible.
Nurses, doctors and teachers ‘face real-terms pay cut’
The news comes as nurses, doctors and teachers face pay awards that risk leaving them worse off as the cost of living climbs, according to trade unions.
- The Government says its plans for 2027-28 can accommodate a 2.4 per cent increase to NHS staff pay without trade-offs against its main health commitments.
- However, ministers have warned that giving NHS staff a pay rise above 2.4 per cent next year could hit patient care.
A closer look at the detail
Teachers, meanwhile, have been awarded a 3.5 per cent pay rise – while in line with inflation, unions argue it is below the 3.9 per cent Retail Prices Index (RPI) rate of inflation.
However, unions have warned this is an older measure of inflation that generally tracks higher than the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), on which inflation is set, and that the deal therefore amounts to a real-terms pay cut.
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What is the DWP saying?
We want to build a welfare system that incentivises work and supports those who need it most, but the system we inherited denied people the support and opportunities they need to move into work.
DWP spokesperson
The MPs who claim they were denied access to West Bank
Two MPs and an MSP have claimed they were detained by Israeli authorities and denied access to the West Bank.
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What happened?
Labour’s Clive Lewis and the SNP’s Lara Bird, along with Kate Nevens of the Scottish Greens, sought to access the territory on Monday as part of a delegation organised by political group Progressive International.
According to Progressive International, the group – which also included former MP Sam Tarry and Spanish Senator Josu Estarrona Elizondo – was detained by the Israeli authorities for eight hours.
What was the group’s plan?
The group was stopped while making the crossing from Jordan and had planned to undertake “a programme of meetings with Palestinian academics, students and civil society organisations” as well as join the olive harvest following what it claims are “mounting attacks” against farmers in the territory.
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What did the group claim?
- In a post on X, Lewis said: “For more than eight hours, we were held, interrogated and made to feel as though we had done something wrong simply by attempting to enter. The simple truth is we had done nothing wrong.”
- Bird posted: “I came to stand alongside Palestinians being attacked for harvesting olives on their own land. Instead, we were turned away, with no reason given.”
A coalition of opposition parties across the political spectrum, headed by former army chief Eisenkot and his Yashar party, was attempting to oust Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners.
Exit polls suggested that the anti-Netanyahu bloc would win roughly the same number of seats as the Netanyahu bloc, around 51 each, with Arab parties holding the balance with 18 seats, up from five in the outgoing parliament.
With no majority for any party, each major bloc will try to form a coalition by wresting support from the other.
Netanyahu told supporters on Tuesday night that “Likud is the largest party, nobody can compete with us”.
He said after the election “we need to form a national right wing government” that should not rely on Arab parties “that are against our existence”.
“The Zionist majority in the state of Israel should be united, as it’s the only way to guarantee the future of Israel,” he said.
Eisenkot, however, said “the public has decided it wants change”.
“The Israeli population voted against Netanyahu continuing to serve as the prime minister of Israel,” he said.
Under Israel’s proportional representation system, voters elect parties and 120 seats in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, are allocated by vote share.
After the final counts are announced, Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, will nominate the candidate with the best chance of forming government. The candidate has 28 days to form a 61-seat majority, with a possible 14-day extension, or else Israel votes again.
Prior to the election Eisenkot, who ran on a platform of hardline security measures, universal military service and an October 7 security inquiry, had a narrow lead in the polls, with Netanyahu’s Likud expected to lose seats.
The election saw record turnout, reaching 74.3 per cent by 8pm. In particular, turnout increased among Arab Israeli voters.
Netanyahu accused Arab parties of attempting to “steal the election”. On Tuesday morning he posted an AI image on X depicting a queue of woman on the way to a polling station wearing niqabs.
He told supporters to “stream to the polls” to vote for Likud and counteract the high turnout from Arab-Israelis.
Both Netanyahu and Eisenkot have a hardline stance on Palestine and have ruled out a two-state solution. Any coalition between Eisenkot’s bloc and Arab parties would be an uneasy one.