Israel's long-standing Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said he cannot form a government, handing the opportunity to his political rival, BBC reports.
Netanyahu has been in power for the past decade, but he was unable to build a coalition with a majority after September's election ended in deadlock.
His rival Benny Gantz of the Blue and White party will now be invited to attempt to form a government.
Netanyahu's attempts to bring Gantz's party into government failed.
Announcing the decision to abandon his efforts, Netanyahu stressed that he had tried repeatedly to form a majority coalition but had been rebuffed.
"I have made all efforts to bring Benny Gantz to the negotiating table, all efforts to form a broad national unity government, all efforts to prevent another election. Unfortunately, time after time, he simply refused," he said.