TEL AVIV, Israel - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition remained well short of a parliamentary majority Thursday as newly counted ballots showed a dramatic surge in support for Arab parties, potentially giving the opposition enough votes to challenge his control of parliament.

With 93.8% of ballots counted as of 4 a.m. ET Thursday (10 a.m. local time in Israel), including votes from the double-envelope count, Netanyahu's right-wing and religious bloc was projected to win 53 seats in Israel's 120-member Knesset, compared with 48 for the opposition bloc led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot. The two predominantly Arab parties were projected to secure a combined 19 seats, bringing the potential anti-Netanyahu parliamentary majority to 67.

The updated figures showed Netanyahu's Likud remaining the largest individual party with 26 seats, followed by Eisenkot's Yashar party with 21 and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's Beyachad party with 12. The figures remain preliminary.

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The results leave neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot with the 61 seats required to form a government independently, raising the prospect of difficult coalition negotiations or another election.

The biggest shift came from Israel's Arab voters, whose turnout surged compared with previous elections, potentially reshaping the country's political balance.

Arab voter participation reached approximately 80%, compared with 53.2% in the 2022 election, according to the Israel Democracy Institute. The 2026 figure remains preliminary.

The Joint List was projected to win 11 seats, while Ra'am was projected to secure eight. Together, their 19 seats would nearly double the Arab parties' representation from the 10 seats they won in 2022.

Overall voter turnout reached 77.7% by the official 10 p.m. closing time on election night, the highest level at that hour since 1999, according to Israel's Central Elections Committee.

The increased Arab participation could prove decisive in determining the next government's composition. Although Eisenkot and several other opposition leaders ruled out including Arab parties in their governing coalition during the campaign, their parliamentary support could allow the opposition to replace Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, a Netanyahu ally, and gain greater control over the legislative agenda even before a new government is formed.

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Qatar allegations intensify political battle

The political stakes intensified Thursday following a Channel 12 report alleging that substantial sums originating in Qatar may have been transferred to influence voter participation in Arab communities.

According to N12, some of the funds allegedly traveled through financial channels previously used to transfer money to terrorist organizations, including currency exchanges.

The allegations have not been independently substantiated, and investigators have yet to establish whether foreign financing occurred or whether election-related crimes were committed.

Channel 12 reported that Shin Bet Director David Zini presented intelligence concerning suspected foreign interference to Central Elections Committee Chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg, prompting the judge to order an investigation.

In a letter published by N12, Sohlberg instructed the domestic security agency to investigate the allegations and identify evidence that could either substantiate or disprove them. He requested findings within one week, citing the limited time available during the election count.

The judge's letter did not publicly identify Qatar as the suspected foreign actor. That identification came from N12's reporting.

Qatar strongly denied the allegations Thursday, accusing Israeli politicians of attempting to drag the Gulf nation into Israel's domestic political disputes following the election.

"We categorically deny allegations that Qatar has interfered in Israeli elections or funded any activities intended to influence their outcome," Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dr. Majed Al-Ansari wrote on X.

Al-Ansari accused Israeli politicians and their allies in the media of launching a "disinformation campaign," saying Qatar had been accused of financing Netanyahu, the Israeli left and now Arab voters.

"If these claims were to be believed, Qatar would apparently own all of Israel," he wrote. "Qatar should not be used as a scapegoat for the political failures of certain Israeli politicians," Al-Ansari added, insisting that Qatar had no involvement in Israel's electoral process and would continue its diplomatic and humanitarian efforts in the region.

Acting Central Elections Committee director general Dean Livne also rejected the allegations in a letter to Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak, who sits on the committee. "The Knesset elections were conducted lawfully. The integrity of the elections at polling stations was rigorously safeguarded, and to the best of our knowledge, there is no basis for allegations of systematic violations of election integrity."

Israel's Shin Bet security agency clarified Thursday that the intelligence behind the investigation was gathered independently and did not originate from any political party. It said no one outside the agency, except Central Elections Committee Chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg, had access to the information before the election ended.

The agency stressed that the investigation remains ongoing and warned against drawing premature conclusions.

The investigation "does not cast aspersions on or accuse an entire sector that went out to vote democratically and lawfully," the Shin Bet said in a statement translated from Hebrew.

The agency also confirmed that Shin Bet Director David Zini had briefed Netanyahu, Eisenkot and opposition leader Yair Lapid on the allegations, with Sohlberg's approval.

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But the allegations have already become part of the political confrontation over whether opposition parties should cooperate with Arab lawmakers.

Netanyahu and Likud had  challenged the legitimacy of the Arab parties' electoral gains. On Wednesday, before the latest Qatari allegations emerged, Likud accused Arab parties of stealing the election through alleged voter fraud, accusations that had not been substantiated.

In a statement Thursday, Likud argued that the suspected foreign interference made cooperation with the Arab parties unacceptable.

"After it became clear that foreign actors attempted to take control of the Knesset, it is obvious that no Zionist party must cooperate with Ra'am and the Joint List, replace the Knesset speaker using votes bought with cash, or establish a government dangerous to Israel," the party said.

The assertion that parliamentary seats were obtained through purchased votes has not been established by the investigation.

Hauser Tov, a political reporter for Israel's Haaretz newspaper, argued on X that the statement revealed Likud's immediate political objective: preventing the opposition from using its potential parliamentary majority to replace the Knesset speaker.

Israeli journalist Amir Tibon wrote on X, "The main reason they want to prevent this is so that the Knesset won't vote to establish a state commission of inquiry into October 7." He argued that such an investigation could examine Qatari involvement in Gaza and Israel.

Eisenkot responded to the allegations Thursday, after meeting with Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) Director David Zini. "Foreign involvement in Israel is unacceptable and profoundly serious, particularly when it involves a country that funds and supports Hamas," Eisenkot said. "It is serious when it occurs in the Prime Minister’s Office, and it is serious if it occurs in the electoral process."

He called on the Shin Bet to investigate the allegations thoroughly and take the strongest possible action against anyone found to have attempted to compromise the election's integrity.

Eisenkot also accused Netanyahu and his allies of conducting "an illegitimate influence operation targeting the Israeli public," claiming its purpose was to delay the publication of the results and undermine the legitimacy of the newly elected Knesset.

Israeli political commentator Amit Segal also cautioned against assuming the allegations would lead to the cancellation of election results.

"The likelihood of the entire election being invalidated is extremely slim, given the time constraints," Segal wrote on X. He suggested the developments could instead intensify discussions about a unity government or another election.

Meanwhile, Democrats party leader Yair Golan urged opposition leaders to move quickly toward forming a new government.

"The people have spoken. Sixty-seven seats demanded change," Golan wrote Thursday on X, adding that he intended to spend the day meeting with political partners and coalition negotiators. "I intend to leave no stone unturned, act in every possible way and do everything necessary to fulfill the voters' will," he added.

The comments underscored the central question emerging from the election: whether parties united in their opposition to Netanyahu can overcome their differences, particularly over cooperation with Arab lawmakers.

Could Trump help broker a unity government?

Another possibility is a national unity coalition involving Netanyahu's Likud and Eisenkot's Yashar party, potentially excluding the Arab parties and Netanyahu's far-right allies.

Such an arrangement could also align with the preferences of figures close to President Donald Trump, who publicly endorsed Netanyahu ahead of the election.

According to Ynet diplomatic correspondent Itamar Eichner, sources close to Trump said the president wants to ensure that far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is excluded from the next Israeli government, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich potentially excluded as well.

A separate Ynet report said Trump associates had contacted Israeli political figures to assess the prospects for a unity government and expressed a preference for a stable coalition without Ben-Gvir.

Trump himself has not publicly endorsed a specific unity arrangement.

Asked Wednesday by Axios whether he would become involved in efforts to establish a Netanyahu-led unity government, Trump said, "I will take a look."

A unity government involving Netanyahu and Eisenkot would face substantial obstacles. Eisenkot repeatedly pledged during the campaign not to join a Netanyahu-led government, while Netanyahu's far-right partners have warned against efforts to exclude them.

The ultra-Orthodox parties present another potential route to a parliamentary majority. Netanyahu's projected 53 seats include 14 held by Shas and United Torah Judaism, which have traditionally aligned with him.

Those 14 seats, combined with Eisenkot's projected 48-seat opposition bloc, would mathematically produce a 62-seat majority. But such an arrangement would face major disagreements over military conscription, as Eisenkot has pledged to expand mandatory service to ultra-Orthodox men, while the religious parties have sought to preserve exemptions for yeshiva students.

Political divisions within Eisenkot's own bloc would present additional obstacles to such a coalition.

For now, the foreign interference allegations remain under investigation, while the election results continue to show Netanyahu's existing coalition without the parliamentary majority required to govern on its own.

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Netanyahu will remain caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed, a process that could take weeks or longer.

TEL AVIV, Israel: Israel's two Arab parties are in a position to have a say in who the country's next prime minister and government will be — but not if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has anything to do with it, after he alleged serious criminal activities took place during voting in the Arab areas of the nation.

The two parties were projected to win a combined 19 Knesset seats, according to preliminary results. However, both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-led right-wing bloc and the opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot’s centrist bloc fell short of the 61 seats needed for a parliamentary majority.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote on X that Israel’s election had been "stolen by Arab parties that support terrorism and the elimination of the Jewish state," alleging serious criminal offenses, including bribery, threats, violence, forgery and the use of prohibited software to mobilize voters.

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"The Likud party is transferring to the police, the Shin Bet and the Central Elections Committee hundreds of testimonies and pieces of evidence regarding election theft in many Arab polling stations," he wrote.

He cited allegations of thousands of envelopes containing cash and Ra’am ballot slips, threats and violence against polling station staff, multiple votes cast behind the voting curtain, voting under multiple identities, discrepancies between the number of ballot envelopes and the number of voters, the use of prohibited voter-mobilization software and other offenses.

"We demand from the police and the Shin Bet a thorough investigation into the election theft by the Arab parties and the full prosecution of the criminals. We demand from the Central Elections Committee an immediate response to investigate these criminal offenses that have severely damaged the integrity of the elections in Israel and the election results," he added. 

In a letter addressed to Yesh Atid lawmaker Vladimir Beliak, Acting Central Elections Committee Director-General Dean Livne wrote that the elections "were conducted lawfully" and that, "to the best of my knowledge, there is no basis for allegations of systematic violations of election integrity," the Times of Israel reported. He also acknowledged that the request for an investigation concerned classified information whose veracity had not yet been determined.

The political makeup of the Arab parties includes the Joint List, which brings together three parties: Hadash, a predominantly Arab-Jewish left-wing party rooted in Israel’s communist movement, and the Arab nationalist parties Ta’al and Balad. With over 90% of ballots counted, the alliance was projected to win 12 seats.

The other Arab party, the United Arab List (Ra’am), led by Mansour Abbas and affiliated with the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, was projected to win seven seats.

Arab citizens make up approximately 21% of Israel’s population. Turnout in this election reached a near record high of between 75% and 80%.

"They are a political force to be reckoned with," Dahlia Scheindlin, a former policy fellow at the Mitvim Institute and a senior analyst at Haaretz, told Fox News Digital.

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Scheindlin said that Netanyahu framed his campaign around the claim that the opposition is prepared to form a government dependent on Arab parties’ support, which he argues would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state that would become a terror state and ultimately bring about Israel’s destruction.

"This is the most consistent message, and he never stopped saying it, including on election day," she said.

Scheindlin said that the issue had become politically sensitive, prompting leading Zionist opposition parties to pledge not to cooperate with the Arab parties.

"They have sworn they would not build a coalition that depends on Arab votes, either from within the coalition or from outside it. If they receive any help, they will have to break that promise," she added.

It is not inconceivable, though highly unlikely, that Netanyahu could reach out to one of the Arab parties to explore the possibility of cooperation, Scheindlin said.

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Dr. Arik Rudnitzky, a researcher in the Israel Democracy Institute’s Arab Society in Israel Program, said that Arab parties had historically remained in the opposition and had not joined governing coalitions.

During the governments of Yitzhak Rabin and, later, Shimon Peres in the 1990s, Arab parties provided a parliamentary safety net from outside the coalition. This enabled the government to remain in office and complete its term even after it effectively became a minority government amid opposition to the Oslo Accords, as the Haredi Shas Party left the government.

"Historically, Arab parties were always in the opposition for many reasons. It was quite uncommon to believe Arab parties could [support] the government. It’s a novelty of recent years, plus the fact that their political strength in terms of the number of seats was not as significant as it is today," Rudnitzky said.

Demographic changes alone do not explain the Arab parties’ growing political strength, Rudnitzky said; shifting voting patterns have also played a role.

"In the past, Arab voters supported both Arab and Jewish parties. In the 1980s and 1990s, approximately half voted for Jewish parties," he continued.

Rudnitzky said historical developments, the impact of the Oslo Accords and the entry of new Arab representatives into the Knesset contributed to a gradual shift away from Jewish parties, with more Arab voters turning to Arab parties.

"Today, we can say that between 85% and 90% of Arab voters support Arab parties. This is the main reason for their increased political strength," he added.

Any support Arab parties might provide to a prospective coalition would come in exchange for political concessions, Rudnitzky said. Their demands would likely include a government decision and a plan to combat crime in Arab communities, as well as a new socioeconomic development plan for the Arab sector involving budget allocations.

Ultimately, he said, such arrangements would involve allocating public goods and resources in exchange for political support. "There is no free lunch in politics. Every collaboration, either within a coalition or from the outside, has its political price."

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Scheindlin noted that while the Joint List would not be invited to join a governing coalition — and its members would not want to do so anyway — Mansour Abbas and his United Arab List have pursued a different, more controversial approach. The party has accepted Israel as a Jewish state and seeks to improve the lives of Arab citizens within that framework, she said.

"They are expecting equality as citizens. They accepted Israel’s identity and are willing to work within that framework to improve the lives of their citizens. They are the only ones who have a chance of being invited into a coalition, as they were in 2021," she said.

In September, the Central Elections Committee (CEC) voted to disqualify the Joint List and the United Arab List from competing in the Oct. 27 elections. On Oct. 2, Israel’s Supreme Court overturned the CEC’s decisions against both parties.

Section 7A of the Basic Law: The Knesset bars candidates who deny Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state, incite to racism, or support the armed struggle of an enemy state or terrorist organization against Israel from participating in Knesset elections.

Martin Sherman, founder and executive director of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies, told Fox News Digital that Arab parties in Israel are essentially illegal and should be barred from participating in elections.

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"They have different social agendas, perhaps, but on the political level, they all oppose Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. One can only hope that politicians in Israel will realize that and that political ambitions and animosity toward Netanyahu will not prevail," he said.

One former Israeli diplomat noted the irony and said it was a good teaching moment for those who don't understand the country. "Arab Israelis voted in huge numbers and, according to the exit polls, won more Knesset seats than ever before. That is the answer to the ridiculously ignorant accusation that Israel is a supposed ‘apartheid’ state," Shahar Azani, veteran Israeli diplomat and former spokesperson of Israel’s consulate in New York, told Fox News Digital.

He added, "Arab citizens are shaping the government and taking part in the Jewish state's democratic celebration, and we welcome it. But with great power comes great responsibility: they must now take the next step and reject the extremist positions some voiced as soon as the results came in, that would alienate them from Israel's Jewish majority."