Israel’s election night ended with a familiar cliffhanger: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finished ahead of his rivals, yet the final count left him far from the majority needed to govern — a result that now points to arduous coalition bargaining and keeps the risk of another ballot on the table.
According to final results published by the Central Elections Committee, Mr Netanyahu’s coalition of right-wing and far-right parties captured 53 of the Knesset’s 120 seats. His Likud party remained the largest faction, winning 27 seats.
The opposition bloc, headed by centrist Gadi Eisenkot, took 48 seats.
The same results underscored the growing leverage of Arab party groupings, with Ra’am and the Joint List emerging as potential kingmakers after securing a combined 19 seats.
With no camp reaching the 61-seat threshold required to form a government, Israel now faces weeks of complex negotiations, and the prospect of yet another election if talks collapse.
The final tally was announced after Mr Netanyahu’s camp spent yesterday promoting unproven claims that Arab-Israeli groups received foreign funding to sway the vote — allegations rejected by both Arab-majority lists and Qatar.
Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency said it was examining suspected irregularities, while emphasising that the investigation was not meant to “cast aspersions or place blame on an entire sector that went out to vote in a democratic and lawful manner”.
The election commission also moved to lower the temperature. Acting director general Dean Livne said suggestions of broad problems were “entirely groundless”.
Gadi Eisenkot yesterday warned Benjamin Netanyahu was working to ‘delegitimise’ election results
Political earthquake
The dispute focused on claims that Ra’am received money from Qatar — the energy-rich Gulf powerbroker that has channels to Hamas — to bankroll vote-buying efforts.
“The Raamgate scandal is a political earthquake. Israel’s elections have been stolen!” Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party said.
Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas denied wrongdoing and said he welcomed an investigation. The Joint List, meanwhile, said Mr Netanyahu and his allies were running a “campaign of incitement” driven by anxiety over Arab voters’ rising political influence.
Government officials have not presented evidence to support the allegations.
Opposition politicians said Mr Netanyahu was seeking to erode trust in the outcome after coming up short of a governing majority.
“He is trying to challenge the election results,” left-wing candidate Yair Golan said.
Mr Eisenkot said he had been briefed by the Shin Bet and the election committee, and cautioned that it was “too early to understand what happened, and whether anything happened at all”.
But he added: “It’s already clear that Likud and Netanyahu have embarked on a coordinated, organised campaign seeking to delegitimise the results of the election.”
Read more:
Eisenkot warns Netanyahu working to ‘delegitimise’ election results
Mr Netanyahu has for years faced allegations connected to Qatar, following the arrests last year of two of his aides on suspicion of receiving payments from the Gulf state.
Qatar dismissed the latest claims as “ridiculous and dangerous”.
Mr Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, tacitly backed Qatar’s funding of Hamas in Gaza for years as a way to maintain stability, but that strategy unravelled on 7 October 2023.
Kingmakers under pressure
Yousef Jabareen, head of the Joint List, said he is prepared to cooperate with the opposition to remove Mr Netanyahu, but not to enter government alongside it.
During voting, Mr Netanyahu sought to elevate fraud allegations, saying Arab parties had been found with envelopes of cash — claims Likud continued to circulate throughout yesterday.
Police said three suspects were arrested, but the election commission described the matter as an isolated local case.
