ISRAEL is set to hold its fifth election in just three years after the country’s coalition government announced that it will dissolve parliament next week. 

Prime Minister Natfali Bennett said he had made “the right decision” in difficult circumstances.

“Together, we got Israel out of the pit. We accomplished many things in this year. First and foremost, we brought to centre stage the values of fairness and trust,” he said in a televised speech alongside Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

“We shifted to a culture of ‘we,’ ‘together.’”

It could see a stunning political comeback for the former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

The opposition leader, who has been embroiled in a corruption trial, is the frontrunner according to polls. 

“I think the winds have changed. I feel it,” he said after the announcement. 

Under the coalition agreement Mr Lapid will take on the post of interim prime minister next week and is expected to be the main rival to Mr Netanyahu. 

He thanked Mr Bennett for putting the country ahead of his personal interests. 

“Even if we’re going to elections in a few months, our challenges as a state cannot wait,” Mr Lapid said. “What we need to do today is go back to the concept of Israeli unity. Not to let dark forces tear us apart from within.”

The coalition had however been weakened by a number of resignations with component parties sharing little in common beyond opposition to Mr Netanyahu.

The final blow came with the government facing defeat over the extension of a law that grants Israel’s illegal settlers in occupied Palestine special legal status.

Arab lawmakers and others were expected to block passage of the legislation which has seen Israel branded an apartheid state by human rights organisations including Amnesty.