A poll published Sunday showed former army Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot is leading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 43% to 38% in suitability for office, while Netanyahu's bloc remained short of a parliamentary majority.
The survey, released by the Israeli public broadcaster KAN, projected 22 seats for Eisenkot's Yashar party in the 120-member Knesset compared with 20 for Netanyahu's Likud, down one seat from the previous week's poll, ahead of elections scheduled for Oct. 27.
Netanyahu's bloc gained two seats to reach 53, leaving it eight short of the 61-seat majority required to form a government.
Eisenkot's bloc was projected to secure 50 seats, with the remaining 17 going to parties classified by the poll as outside both camps.
Arab parties were projected to win a combined 13 seats, including eight for the Joint List and five for the United Arab List, known as Ra'am, led by Mansour Abbas.
Within Netanyahu's bloc, the poll gave nine seats to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power party, eight to United Torah Judaism and seven to Shas. The Religious Zionism-Zehut alliance was projected to secure five seats.
Amcha Yisrael, led by former brigadier general Ofer Winter, was projected to win four seats, clearing the electoral threshold after failing to do so in the previous poll.
The survey also indicated substantial voter uncertainty, with 30% of respondents saying they had yet to decide which party to support and 21% saying they were considering not voting.
Meanwhile, 54% supported a televised debate between Netanyahu and Eisenkot before the election, including 38% of respondents who intended to vote for Likud.
The results suggest that neither Netanyahu's bloc nor the Jewish opposition bloc would secure enough seats to form a government on its own.