Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political alliance has emerged as the leading bloc in the country’s general election but failed to secure the majority required to form a government.
Final results released by the Central Elections Committee on Friday showed that the coalition of right-wing and far-right parties won 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
Netanyahu’s Likud party emerged as the largest single party with 27 seats, while the opposition bloc, led by centrist politician Gadi Eisenkot, secured 48 seats.
Arab political groups, Raam and the Joint List, won a combined 19 seats, putting them in a strategic position to influence the formation of the next government.
With neither bloc reaching the 61-seat threshold required for a parliamentary majority, Israel faces weeks of coalition negotiations, with another election possible if political parties fail to reach an agreement.
The election outcome followed allegations by Netanyahu’s camp that Arab-Israeli groups received foreign funding to influence the voting process. The allegations were rejected by the groups and Qatar.
Israel’s domestic security agency, Shin Bet, confirmed that it was investigating suspected irregularities but said the probe was not intended to “cast aspersions or place blame on an entire sector that went out to vote in a democratic and lawful manner”.
The acting director general of the electoral commission, Dean Livne, also dismissed claims of widespread electoral malpractice as “entirely groundless”.
The controversy centred on allegations that Raam received funding from Qatar to finance vote-buying activities.
Reacting to the development, Netanyahu’s Likud party said on Thursday: “The Raamgate scandal is a political earthquake. Israel’s elections have been stolen!”
Raam leader Mansour Abbas denied any wrongdoing and welcomed an investigation, while the Joint List accused Netanyahu and his allies of conducting a “campaign of incitement” against Arab voters.
No evidence has so far been presented by government officials to substantiate the allegations.
Opposition politicians accused Netanyahu of attempting to discredit the election results after failing to secure enough seats to form a government.
Left-wing politician Yair Golan said, “He is trying to challenge the election results”.
Eisenkot, who said he had received briefings from the Shin Bet and the electoral commission, maintained that it was “too early to understand what happened, and whether anything happened at all”.
He, however, accused Netanyahu and Likud of orchestrating efforts to undermine the election outcome.
“It’s already clear that Likud and Netanyahu have embarked on a coordinated, organised campaign seeking to delegitimise the results of the election,” he said.
Netanyahu has also faced allegations over links between his aides and Qatar, following the arrest of two of his associates last year for allegedly receiving payments from the Gulf nation.
Qatar dismissed the latest claims as “ridiculous and dangerous”.
The Israeli Prime Minister, who has spent several years in office, previously supported Qatar’s financial assistance to Hamas in Gaza as part of efforts to maintain stability. However, the policy collapsed following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
