Benjamin Netanyahu has swept to a stunning election victory, securing a third straight term for an Israeli leader who has deepened tensions with the Palestinians and infuriated key ally Washington.
After a close-fought campaign, Netanyahu's right wing Likud party confounded expectations and won 30 of the 120 seats in parliament, against 24 for rivals the centre-left Zionist Union.
It was a victory that Netanyahu himself described as "against all the odds", proving him once again to be Israel's master of political brinkmanship.
"I am moved by the weight of the responsibility the people of Israel have placed on my shoulders," he said.
But the prospect of a new term for the hawkish premier is likely to cast a long shadow over Israel's shattered relationship with the Palestinians and its strained ties with the US administration.
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Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat pledged to "speed up, pursue and intensify" all diplomatic efforts, including an imminent move to lodge a complaint against Israel for alleged war crimes at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is ready to work with any Israeli government that supports Palestinian statehood, his spokesman said.
"It doesn't matter to us who the next prime minister of Israel is, what we expect from this government is to recognise the two-state solution," Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement.
In a last-minute campaign appeal to the Israeli far-right, Netanyahu had ruled out the establishment of a Palestinian state if re-elected, effectively reneging on his 2009 endorsement of a two-state solution.
He also pledged to build thousands of homes for Jewish settlers in Arab east Jerusalem - which Israel seized in the 1967 Six-Day War - to prevent future concessions to the Palestinians.
But experts said he could row back from his hardline positions.
"I put much more stock in his actual behaviour and we know that he has agreed on numerous occasions to negotiate with the Palestinians on the basis of the 1967 borders," said Nathan Thrall of the International Crisis Group.
Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog had pledged to resume talks with the Palestinians in a bid to end the conflict.
In Tel Aviv, Herzog conceded defeat and congratulated the premier on winning a third consecutive term, and a fourth overall.
Netanyahu will form a new government "within two to three weeks," his party said, adding that he had already spoken with right wing and religious party leaders whose support he will need to form a coalition.
