JERUSALEM: TV exit polls last night showed Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni edging out hard-line leader Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s general election.

Cheers erupted at Kadima’s headquarters as the results were announced on Israeli TV stations. First real results are only expected in several hours. Exit polls are not always reliable.

Even if the TV predictions hold up, it is not clear if Livni’s Kadima party would be able to form Israel’s next government.

Israel’s three main TV stations released exit polls as voting ended at 10 p.m. Channel One and Channel 10 each gave 30 of 120 Parliament seats to Kadima and 28 seats to the hard-line Likud party of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Channel Two gave 29 seats to Kadima and 27 to Likud.

Opinion polls were long predicting a decisive victory for Likud. But new polls released over the weekend showed Kadima closing the gap.

After casting her vote at a Tel Aviv polling station, Livni called on Israelis to do the same despite stormy weather. “I have just done what I want every citizen in Israel to do — first of all to get out of the house, rain or no rain, cold or hot, go out, go to the polling station, go into the booth, close your eyes, and vote,” Livni said.

Despite initial concerns that the weather could keep voters home, turnout was higher than expected, at nearly 60 percent with nearly two hours left to go, the Central Election Commission said.

Livni was one of the architects of Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip last month and has been striving to present an image of herself as tough but sensible.

Netanyahu is portraying himself as the candidate best equipped to deal with the threats Israel faces — Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran.

“I will do everything so that our enemies won’t provoke us, won’t think we’re weak, won’t rain down ... their rockets,” he told reporters in the southern city of Beersheba, which was hit by rockets from Gaza during the fighting there. “They’ll know that in Israel there’s a different government, a strong prime minister who will answer with a crushing response to any attack on us.”

Despite the narrow gap between Livni and Netanyahu, polls have predicted that voters will take a sharp turn to the right and elect a Parliament dominated by hard-line parties opposed to territorial concessions. That would make it difficult for Livni to form a government even if she wins.

The national mood is at least partially linked to the rocket fire from Gaza that sparked Israel’s recent offensive there, and to a sense among Israelis that territorial withdrawals like the country’s 2005 Gaza pullout have only brought more violence.

Rami Golan, 60, a chef in Jerusalem, said Israel needed a “strong government.”

Netanyahu opposes ceding land to the Palestinians and favors allowing Israeli settlements in the West Bank to expand, two points that are likely to put him on a collision course with the new US administration.

Livni has served as chief negotiator with the Palestinians and says a West Bank withdrawal is necessary for Israel’s own security.