Israeli military breaks silence on purported feud with Netanyahu

The Israeli military has broken its silence on a widely reported feud with the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, insisting it will only make decisions about attacks against Iran based on national security considerations.

In the last few days of the Israeli election campaign, Mr Netanyahu has ratcheted up his public rhetoric on the threat posed by Iran, including posting an AI-generated image of Tel Aviv being hit with a nuclear bomb.

Weeks of speculation about whether Mr Netanyahu had been pushing for fresh strikes on Iran ahead of, or to coincide with, the national poll culminated in stunning leaks to the Israeli media on Sunday night.

Channel 12, Israel's most popular television network and an outlet often derided by the Netanyahu government, reported that the prime minister was at loggerheads with Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff Eyal Zamir.

The suggestion was the IDF was uncomfortable at the prospect of being used to attack the Iranian regime based on party political calculations.

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz rejected the reporting.

Soon after, CNN reported General Zamir had told his US counterpart that any strikes ahead of the Israeli election would delay the vote, prompting the White House to refuse to give Israel the green light to launch the attacks.

"The IDF is focused on its missions and remains on high alert in every arena, in light of various warnings and the sensitivity of the current period," the military said in a statement.

"The IDF's operational activities and decisions are based solely on security, professional, objective and national considerations.

"Any other discussion is misleading and irrelevant."

Netanyahu warnings on Iran 'might ring hollow'

Analysts said tension between the government and the military had been common over the last few years, as competing interests on the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran boiled over.

"It's not a surprise in Israel because the conflict between the two, the political and the military echelons, is there for the last three years in many, many junctures," Sima Shine, a former high-ranking Mossad officer and now senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies told the ABC.

Ms Shine warned Mr Netanyahu's sudden insistence Iran posed a significant threat to Israel might ring hollow, even with legitimate concerns about Tehran's stockpiles of nuclear material.

"You know, after two wars that both President Trump and the prime minister have said that they obliterated the program, now we are again with this threat of the nuclear program," she said.

"There is less, I would say less confidence or trust would be better to say, less trust in what is being said on this issue."

Mr Netanyahu's political opponents have lashed out at his recent references to the Iranian threat, with one challenger Avigdor Liberman even demanding he be investigated for treason over the clashes with the IDF's top brass.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Bagahei said the outcome of the Israeli poll was a moot point.

"It makes no difference to us who ultimately takes the helm of the regime in such an atmosphere, in such an election, when its track record shows that it has had no other outcome for our region but violence and killing," he said in Tehran.

Mr Netanyahu has also published an AI-generated video on his social media channels, showing a journalist asking Iran's reclusive Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamanei who he would vote for.

Lying in bed, with his arms and legs in casts, Ayatollah Khamanei said anyone but "Bibi", suggesting another term of Mr Netanyahu's prime ministership would likely mean he met the same fate as his father — killed on the first day of the US and Israel's war against Iran in late February.

Final stretch of critical election

Mr Netanyahu has also been leaning heavily on the endorsement he received from US President Donald Trump.

A fresh billboard has been spotted in Tel Aviv, showing the two men standing side-by-side with fighter jets flying overhead and the slogan "we have one chance to win".

Buses are also adorned with quotes from Mr Trump, backing Mr Netanyahu.

In Jerusalem's Machane Yehuda markets, voters the ABC spoke to were divided on who they would be voting for.

One shopkeeper declared, "There's no person in this country who can lead us except for Bibi."

A shopper said she would be voting for Gadi Eisenkot, the leading challenger from the anti-Netanyahu camp.

"I've been a very big supporter of Bibi but now I really believe that we need a change."

Others backed controversial far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, ultra-Orthodox Jewish party Shas — further evidence of how fractured the Israeli political system is.

Polling shows Eisenkot's Yashar party is on track to become the largest in the 120-seat Israeli Knesset, slightly ahead of Mr Netanyahu's Likud.

But both men will need to rely on complicated coalition arrangements to form government, meaning it could be weeks before an outcome of the election is known.