Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar movement moved past Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud for the first time according to a Maariv survey published Friday even as the ruling coalition presses forward with its legislative agenda before the Knesset disbands.

Yashar captured the top spot with 22 mandates gaining two from the prior survey and ten more than it showed after the April merger involving Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. Likud held steady at 21 while Bennett and Lapid's Together list slipped one seat to 18.

The newly formed party under former culture minister Chili Tropper and Reservist leader Yoaz Hendel earned 2.9 percent of the vote and stayed below the electoral threshold.

Nevertheless the group drew votes away from Religious Zionist Party supporters lowering that party to four seats and shrinking the Netanyahu-aligned bloc to 49 mandates. Arab lists held firm at 11 seats.

When respondents were asked which party they would support if elections took place immediately Yashar received 22 seats up from 20 Likud stayed at 21 Yisrael Beytenu and the Democrats remained at 10 Otzma Yehudit Shas and United Torah Judaism stayed at eight Hadash-Ta'al held six Ra'am stayed at five and Religious Zionist Party fell to four from five.

Bennett-led merger with Tropper-Hendel party would reach 35 seats

Under a scenario where Together and Yashar combine under Bennett the unified list would secure 35 seats two more than the last poll yet five fewer than the parties would obtain on their own.

In that case the Tropper-Hendel party would clear the threshold with five seats drawing partly from Yisrael Beytenu and the Democrats and partly from Religious Zionist Party voters.

Religious Zionist Party would then fall below the threshold receiving only 2.4 percent.

The bloc breakdown in that scenario shows the Netanyahu camp with 48 seats the Zionist opposition with 56 the Tropper-Hendel party with five and Arab parties with 11. Should the Tropper-Hendel party align with the Zionist opposition the combined group would hit the 61-seat mark required to form a government.

If Eisenkot led the combined Yashar-Together list the merged party would obtain 39 seats two more than the previous poll. The Tropper-Hendel party would also clear the threshold with four seats while Religious Zionism would remain under it at 2.9 percent.

Eisenkot-led merger would reach 63-seat majority for Zionist opposition

The bloc distribution under an Eisenkot-led merger shows Netanyahu's coalition at 46 seats the Zionist opposition at 59 the Tropper-Hendel party at four and Arab parties at 11. Cooperation between the Zionist opposition and Tropper-Hendel would then yield a steadier majority of 63 MKs.

The survey also revealed that Bennett's advantage over Netanyahu on prime-minister suitability narrowed from four points in the prior poll to two points at 43 percent to 41 percent. Eisenkot meanwhile extended his lead over Netanyahu to eight points at 48 percent to 40 percent.

The Maariv poll was carried out by Lazar Research together with Panel4All on July 8-9 among 500 respondents representing a sample of Israel's adult population aged 18 and over including Jews and Arabs. The maximum margin of error stood at 4.4 percent.