The result marks a substantial parliamentary setback for Netanyahu’s bloc. Its 53 seats were well below the 68 seats it had controlled at its peak in the previous parliament. The main opposition won 48 seats, while Arab-led parties secured the remaining 19, according to the reported final distribution.
The count was reported as complete, but the results still required certification and submission to Israel’s president. The supplied material does not establish that this remaining procedural step would alter the reported allocation of seats.
Likud had been spreading claims of wrongdoing by Arab-led parties after exit polls indicated that Netanyahu had suffered a setback. It later escalated the rhetoric by saying the elections had been “stolen” and alleging that foreign assistance had helped produce the outcome. The allegations were presented in the supplied reporting as unsubstantiated or made without evidence.
The claims intensified after Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who heads Israel’s election committee, referred serious suspicions of possible foreign interference to the Shin Bet security agency. Sohlberg said he could not verify the claims but asked the agency to investigate because of their seriousness.
The election commission said the investigation did not affect the final results and that allegations of systematic violations of electoral integrity were baseless or unfounded. The supplied material therefore documents an inquiry into allegations, not evidence that Qatar or another foreign entity interfered in the vote.
Members of Netanyahu’s party were reported to have accused Qatar of involvement. Qatar denied the allegation and described it as “ridiculous and dangerous.” The denial and the investigation are established in the reporting, but Qatari involvement itself is not.
Netanyahu’s opponents accused his camp of demonising Arab citizens and trying to delegitimise the election results after Arab-led parties performed strongly. That criticism remains an opposition allegation rather than an independently established finding in the supplied material.
The seat distribution leaves a possible route to a majority government if opposition parties join with Arab-led parties. The sources describe that outcome as a possibility, not as a completed coalition, and do not establish whether the parties will cooperate.
The result thus creates both a parliamentary challenge for Netanyahu’s bloc and a contest over how Arab-led parties’ gains are understood. What is established is the loss of the bloc’s majority and the referral of interference allegations for investigation; whether any foreign interference occurred and what government will emerge remain unresolved.