diff --git a/Lib/test/test_sax.py b/Lib/test/test_sax.py
index 29babd7bf6996ad..2b89569a2857dc1 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_sax.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_sax.py
@@ -1039,6 +1039,26 @@ def test_expat_entityresolver_enabled(self):
         self.assertEqual(result.getvalue(), start +
                          b"<doc><entity></entity></doc>")
 
+    def test_expat_entityresolver_not_well_formed(self):
+        # gh-156796: the parser of an external entity was never finalized,
+        # so errors only detectable at the end of its input, such as an
+        # unclosed element, were silently ignored.
+        class NotWellFormedEntityResolver:
+            def resolveEntity(self, publicId, systemId):
+                inpsrc = InputSource()
+                inpsrc.setByteStream(BytesIO(b"<entity>"))
+                return inpsrc
+
+        parser = create_parser()
+        parser.setFeature(feature_external_ges, True)
+        parser.setEntityResolver(NotWellFormedEntityResolver())
+        parser.setContentHandler(XMLGenerator(BytesIO()))
+
+        with self.assertRaises(SAXParseException):
+            parser.feed('<!DOCTYPE doc [<!ENTITY test SYSTEM "whatever">]>'
+                        '<doc>&test;</doc>')
+            parser.close()
+
     def test_expat_entityresolver_default(self):
         parser = create_parser()
         self.assertEqual(parser.getFeature(feature_external_ges), False)
diff --git a/Lib/xml/sax/expatreader.py b/Lib/xml/sax/expatreader.py
index 37b1add28484877..1ce3b6b5e584fc3 100644
--- a/Lib/xml/sax/expatreader.py
+++ b/Lib/xml/sax/expatreader.py
@@ -238,9 +238,14 @@ def _close_source(self):
                 file.close()
 
     def close(self):
-        if (self._entity_stack or self._parser is None or
-            isinstance(self._parser, _ClosedParser)):
-            # If we are completing an external entity, do nothing here
+        if self._parser is None or isinstance(self._parser, _ClosedParser):
+            return
+        if self._entity_stack:
+            # We are completing an external entity.  Finalize its parser so
+            # that errors which are only detectable at the end of the input,
+            # such as an unclosed element, are reported, but do not end the
+            # document: the enclosing parse is still in progress.
+            self.feed(b"", isFinal=True)
             return
         try:
             self.feed(b"", isFinal=True)
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-09-02-00-00-00.gh-issue-156796.k7Qw2P.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-09-02-00-00-00.gh-issue-156796.k7Qw2P.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000000..d5aadccaf3c37d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-09-02-00-00-00.gh-issue-156796.k7Qw2P.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+Fix :mod:`xml.sax` not reporting an external entity whose content is not
+well-formed. The parser created for the entity was never finalized, so errors
+which are only detectable at the end of its input, such as an unclosed
+element, were silently ignored.