Israel election results live: Qatar says accusations of election interference in Israel ‘ridiculous and dangerous’

Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, expressed hope that the Israeli election would pave the way for renewed peace talks.

“For many years now, we have been extending a hand to the Israeli side in order to achieve peace with them, so that Israel and Palestine may live in security, stability and peace,” Abbas said during a meeting with Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides in Nicosia.

“We hope that, immediately after a new Israeli government is formed, we will be able to engage in dialogue together.”

As vote counting continues in Israel, here is a roundup of today’s key developments:

• Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies have amplified allegations of election fraud against parties representing Palestinian citizens in Israel. He and members of his coalition have referred the parties to Shin Bet, the country’s domestic security service, for investigation. Netanyahu’s Likud party accused the Palestinian parties of “stealing” the election and claimed, without evidence, that they received money from Qatar.

• Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, rejected the allegations, saying they were “ridiculous and dangerous”. Responding to the claims, he said: “We categorically deny allegations that Qatar has interfered in Israeli elections or funded any activities intended to influence their outcome.”

• The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, has come to the defence of Palestinian voters, as he urged political leaders against “tarnishing an entire community that sought to exercise its right to vote”. He said Shin Bet and the country’s central elections committee would investigate allegations of foreign interference “throughly”.

• The central elections committee’s acting director general, Dean Livne, said there was “no basis for claims of systematic violations of election integrity”. The Israeli police also dismissed the claims, according to comments reported in Hebrew-language media, with one source quoted as saying: “Election day passed with very few irregular incidents.”

• Netanyahu’s chief rival, former military chief and Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot, warned political opponents against exploiting allegations of foreign interference to delay the swearing-in of the next Knesset, which is set for 10 November.

• The sentiment was shared by Yair Golan, the leader of the centre-left Democrats, who accused Netanyahu of trying to “undermine the election results through an ugly delegitimisation campaign” targeting Palestinian citizens in Israel.

• So far, Netanyahu’s bloc is projected to win 53 seats, compared with 48 for the grouping led by rival Eisenkot. Palestinian parties are projected to win 19 seats, a record high.

• The final tally of absentee ballots is not expected to significantly shift the results, with no grouping managing to reach the 61 seats needed for a majority in the Knesset.

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman rejected accusations “made by certain Israeli politicians and their contacts in the media” that his country had interfered in the Israeli elections.

“We categorically deny allegations that Qatar has interfered in Israeli elections or funded any activities intended to influence their outcome,” Majed al-Ansari said on X.

“They accuse Qatar of buying off Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli political left and now, in this latest campaign, the Arab vote… These accusations are ridiculous and dangerous in equal measure.”

Both Benjamin Netanyahu and his immediate challenger, Gadi Eisenkot, lack the seats in the Knesset to form a majority government. Eisenkot and his allies face a clear choice.

They could forge a pact with the Arab Israeli parties, currently heading for an historic 19 seats, which would allow them to vote Netanyahu out and form a governing coalition. Or they could enter a unity government with Netanyahu, in return for a ministry or two.

Likud officials are cited in today’s Israeli press as saying Eisenkot will ultimately have no option but to throw in his lot with Netanyahu. Other observers say that would be political suicide, especially as the opposition leader vowed in the campaign he would never collaborate with the prime minister.

However, Eisenkot and key members of his bloc have also ruled out cooperation with the Arab party lists. Breaking either pledge would be costly for them.

The prime minister’s attack on the legitimacy of the Palestinian vote is designed to tip the scales, to force Eisenkot into the Netanyahu camp by increasing the political toxicity of any arrangement with Arab parties, the Joint List and Ra’am.

For its part, the Joint List has ruled out participating in an Eisenkot government because of his bloc’s support for the war in Gaza and the occupation of southern Lebanon, but it has offered to support an Eisenkot minority government with tactical voting in the new Knesset, in the shared interest of ousting Netanyahu.

Even such a transactional arrangement is hard to achieve given the state of Israeli Jewish politics. The only Zionist party that advocates cooperation with Palestinians, the Democrats, won just 6.5% of the total vote by the latest count.

The right and centre-right accounted for 66.5%, while ultra-orthodox Jewish parties won 11%.

Against that background, Eisenkot has doubled down on his determination to form a Zionist government. Such rhetoric makes the prospect of cooperation with Arab parties even more remote, but he is hoping instead to lure away conservative Jews from Likud, just as Netanyahu’s is trawling for defectors from Eisenkot’s “Change” bloc.

This is the current phase of the post-election struggle, and it is one that, for now, excludes Arab Israelis, despite their dramatically increased political strength.

The head of one of Israel’s parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel rejected allegations of electoral fraud and welcomed an investigation, saying his moderate Islamist Ra’am party had “no connection” to the matter.

“Ra’am has no connection whatsoever to the affair in question or to any other affairs, and we declare that we will fully cooperate with all law enforcement authorities to uncover the truth,” Mansour Abbas said, according to a spokesperson for his party.

The race to form a government in Israel has begun with characteristically brass-knuckle tactics from Benjamin Netanyahu. He and other members of his coalition have referred the parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel, the only part of the opposition which over-performed in Tuesday’s elections, to the country’s domestic security service, the Shin Bet, for investigation.

The government’s claims centre around the allegation that Qatari funds were used illegally to buy votes and mobilise Palestinian Israeli citizens. There is so far no evidence to support the accusation. Haaretz quotes a senior police official saying there were no signs of election fraud and that Tuesday’s vote was cleaner than usual.

In Nazareth on election day, it was clear that turnout was unusually high because of anxiety and fear of what actions the extremists in Netanyahu’s government might turn their attention to Palestinian communities in Israel if they continue in power.

The only reported irregularities involved the the ruling coalition. Many of the ballots delivered to the polling station were printed only in Hebrew, while monitors from the far right used a variety of ploys to slow down the vote.

There is also a certain irony underpinning the allegations as Netanyahu is mired in a scandal over Qatari payments to his advisers in return for improving the Gulf monarchy’s image.

Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has come to the defence of Palestinian voters in the Israeli election, amid accusations by Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies of alleged ballot fraud by parties representing Palestinian voters of Israel.

Herzog said he has spoken to the heads of the country’s central elections committee and Shin Bet regarding allegations of foreign interference in Tuesday’s vote, saying the issue must be “thoroughly investigated”.

“I am closely following developments in the investigation into the suspicions reported this morning,” he said in remarks published by Israeli media.

He added: “But even at a moment like this, we must avoid tarnishing an entire community that sought to exercise its right to vote and take an active part in democracy.”

Herzog called on party representatives ahead of impending coalition talks to reconsider their positions out of a sense of responsibility towards the country.

Once the official results are in, I will meet with representatives of all the political groups. I say this to everyone here – to the public and its leaders – ahead of next week’s consultations: keep an open mind, keep an open heart and broaden your perspective.

There is only one question that should be at the forefront of your minds: what is in the best interests of the country?”

A Palestinian party leader in Israel has accused Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies of undermining the legitimacy of “the clearest election results Israel has seen in decades”.

Sami Abu Shehadeh, chair of the Balad party which forms part of the Arab-led Joint List, said unsubstantiated allegations of foreign interference in the election sought to delegitimise the Palestinian vote.

Abu Shehadeh, a former Knesset member who was effectively forced to drop out of the race himself by the Israeli supreme court, said on X:

What began with the illegal disqualification of Arab parties escalated into incitement against Arab parties and the Arab public. On election day, hundreds of far-right activists armed with weapons were deployed at polling stations in Arab towns in an attempt to suppress voter turnout. Now, this racist blood libel is entering its next phase, fuelled by dangerous accusations.

Netanyahu and his allies are dangerous. They are laying the groundwork to reject the clearest election results Israel has seen in decades.”

He added that Netanyahu, as “a man charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust”, was inciting against the Palestinian citizens of Israel, which make up 20% of the population.

He continued:

In any functioning democracy, those who lose an election accept responsibility and step down. In Israel, the losing side manufactures a racist blood libel and calls on the security forces to use force to overturn the people’s verdict.

We must not let the far right steal the election or drag the country into another election on the basis of fabricated, delusional accusations.

You lost. Get out.”

Echoing Ben-Gvir, the far-right Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has also called on Shin Bet to interrogate the leaders of parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel, amid claims of alleged foreign election interference that critics say risk casting suspicion on the Arab vote.

“The suspicion of election manipulation using foreign Islamist money is a litmus test for the State of Israel,” Smotrich said on X.

“The heads of the Arab parties must be interrogated by the Shin Bet today.”

Hot on Eisenkot’s heels, Yair Golan, the leader of the centre-left Democrats, has accused Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to “undermine the election results through an ugly delegitimisation campaign” targeting Palestinian citizens in Israel.

Netanyahu’s Likud party has claimed – without evidence – that parties representing these citizens have “stolen” the election and demanded the police and the Shin Bet investigate the allegations.

In a post on X, Golan said:

Netanyahu suffered a crushing democratic defeat. The public fired him, and he refuses to accept the verdict of the voters.

Now he is trying to undermine the election results through an ugly delegitimisation campaign against the will of the public, and against the Arab public in particular.

Any genuine suspicion of damage to the integrity of the elections must be investigated to the end.”

Israel’s central elections committee has requested the Shin Bet to investigate alleged foreign interference, the Associated Press reported, citing claims in a letter dated Wednesday of funding by “foreign entities against the Israeli interest” but providing no details or assessment of their validity. The source of the allegations remains unclear, and the committee has requested findings within a week, ahead of the 4 November deadline for certifying election results under Israeli law.