Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency has formally launched a national security investigation into suspected foreign election interference, with Qatar emerging as a prime suspect, local media reported.

The election ended in a much-feared political deadlock, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government coalition receiving 53 seats, while the Gadi Eisenkot-led opposition bloc trailed with 48 seats. Notably, the Arab-led parties of Ra’am and the Joint List secured 19 seats, a surge from their combined 10 seats in the 2022 election.

The investigation was triggered by the arrest of seven individuals during police raids in the Negev region linked to cash-for-votes schemes. These raids, executed just before the October 27 election, resulted in the discovery of envelopes containing tens of thousands of shekels alongside official ballots for the Arab-led Ra'am party.

State media house Kan News reported that the intervention was directly mandated by Central Elections Committee chairman Judge Noam Solberg, who cited credible intelligence suggesting that hostile foreign actors funnelled millions of Israeli shekels into the country to artificially manipulate the parliamentary balance of power.

Investigators are currently tracing whether this cash distribution mechanism was part of a broader transnational effort to incentivise voting for Ra’am.

Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas has denied the allegations surrounding his party. 

"Ra'am welcomes the decision of Central Elections Committee Chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg to investigate suspicions of an attempt to improperly influence the elections through foreign funding," Abbas stated, as per The Jerusalem Post, continuing: “There will be nothing, because there is nothing.”

Government officials have sharply criticised the initial police response to the irregularities, arguing that local law enforcement either suffered from severe intelligence blind spots in Arab municipalities or failed to properly examine the evidence before the Shin Bet intervened.

The developments have ignited severe partisan friction over the integrity of the democratic process.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for immediate interrogations of Arab political leaders, declaring in a press statement, "The suspicion of biasing elections with foreign Islamist money is a test point for the State of Israel."

Meanwhile, Channel 14 reported that the Likud party of Netanyahu submitted extensive documentation alleging systemic voter fraud, asserting that the election was compromised through bribery and intimidation.

On the other side of the political aisle, parliamentarian Gilad Kariv from the Democrats accused Netanyahu of refusing to accept the election result.

"Netanyahu lost the elections and refuses to acknowledge the results," Kariv wrote on X. "The public denied Netanyahu's bloc its majority, and now he and his partners are trying to undermine the legitimacy of the elections in order to cling to power, while inciting, along the way, against two million Arab citizens."

The Shin Bet's investigation is underway, according to local reports.