Netanyahu's Likud signs half of lawmakers for coalition

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conservative Likud party said on Wednesday said that it had signed up 60 of parliament's 120 lawmakers for a potential coalition, still short of a majority as a midnight deadline to form a new Israeli government loomed.

The announcement was immediate contested, however, by the Kulanu party, one of Likud's presumed allies. "Kulanu has not signed a coalition deal," it said on Twitter.