'We lost 10 seats': Netanyahu struggles to find campaign strategy as Likud slips in polls - report

The conversations held by the prime minister indicated that he is skeptical of polls that show favorable results for him and believes that the situation is worse than those surveys suggest.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said in closed conversations that he does not know how to win back the seats Likud has lost in recent polls, Kan News reported on Wednesday.

"We lost 10 seats; I don't know how to get them back," Netanyahu reportedly said.

According to the report, Netanyahu still does not know what kind of campaign to run, and he believes that unless things change, Likud will lose the upcoming election.

The conversations held by the prime minister indicated that he is skeptical of polls that show favorable results for him and believes that the situation is worse than those surveys suggest.

Likud responded to the KAN News report by saying: "Fake news, you're looking at the wrong polls. Likud under Benjamin Netanyahu will win the election."

New People of Israel party causes major Right-wing shakeup

Netanyahu’s reported worry comes after the launch of Brig.-Gen. (res.) Ofer Winter's party, People of Israel, on Tuesday, and subsequent polling suggesting the party could receive five seats, pushing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionist Party below the electoral threshold. 

Winter announced the party at an event at Jerusalem's Shalva Center, presenting the upcoming October 27 election as a choice between Israel's existing political leadership and what he described as a new generation shaped by the failures and fighting that followed the October 7 massacre.

Winter introduced other members of the slate partly through the communities they represent, including Arab-Israeli activist Yoseph Haddad in the number two slot.