With exit polls showing the two major parties vying for Israel’s leadership neck-and-neck, the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared before a chanting crowd to thank his supporters in a mock-victory speech.

The result will not be known until at least Wednesday, and his opponents the Zionist Union have not conceded.

“This is a big victory for the Labor Party, which hasn’t done this well since Yitzhak Rabin won in 1992,” left-coalition the Zionist Union’s Leader Isaac Herzog said.

On the election result he said “no decision will be made tonight. We have formed a negotiating team,” as quoted in Haaretz.

Both sides have already begun talks to form a coalition government with other minor parties.

Exit polling showing two battling Israeli parties neck-and-neck after the ballot boxes closed on the Jewish state’s national election held overnight.

The informal polls aired on Israeli TV put the ruling Likud party helmed by Benjamin Netanyahu either even or a seat ahead of the left rising power the Zionist Union.

Against all odds:a great victory for the Likud. A major victory for the people of Israel!

— בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) March 17, 2015

Polls in the lead up to the election had predicted the Zionist Union would unseat the incumbent government.

A poll conducted for Channel 2 gave Likud 28 seats and Zionist Union 27, while other polls have them even on 27 each, Haaretz reports.

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About 71 per cent of Israelis had voted out of a 5.9 million eligible voter base, the newspaper reported on its blog.

The election has been peppered with reports of bald dog-whistling politics and pragmatic moves among the challengers to present the most electable front.

On YouTube Mr Netanyahu appeared calling on right-wing Israelis to get out the vote: “The right-wing government is in danger, Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls.”

He said the Zionist union opposition was “bussing them out”.

Mr Netanyahu claimed he had been stopped from speaking to the media on election day while “the anyone but Bibi party”, referring to the Zionist Union, “has not ceased speaking in the media, without hindrance.”

“No one will shut us up,” he said.

He also accused the Zionist Union of receiving foreign funds to finance their campaign.

In return the Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog said on his Facebook page Mr Netanyahu was “panicking” and called him a “liar”.

The New York Times reports that there could be a six-week wait for a result as the Israeli electoral system moves into its second phase of the electoral system.

The president will poll the party leaders asking who they prefer as prime minister, and that person will be asked to form a coalition, the Times reported.

Just days out from the poll, Mr Netanyahu abandoned a 2009 understanding that he would support a separate Palestinian state, outraging European and United States governments.