Netanyahu's bloc holds 53 seats, short of the 61 needed for Israel's Knesset majority

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud-led bloc finished Israel's Tuesday election with 53 of the 120 Knesset seats, results released early Friday showed, leaving him five seats short of a governing majority. The largest opposition bloc won 48 seats, and Arab-led parties combined for 19, a record for that group of parties.

A government requires 61 seats. Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, remains in office while the parties meet and negotiate. Centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on X that "now comes the truly difficult part" and asked Israelis for patience, adding: "If you want to know whether anything is happening behind the silence you are hearing now, the answer is yes."

The count must be certified and delivered to President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday, after which Herzog assigns the task of building a government. He can name the leader of the party that received the most votes, which is Netanyahu, or someone the party heads agree on. If no government forms after several attempts, Israel votes again early next year; Herzog said this week he would work to prevent that outcome.

Before the final results, Netanyahu and Likud amplified claims, unsupported by evidence, that Arab-led parties had "stolen" the election, possibly with foreign help. Israel's electoral commission chief, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, wrote to the Shin Bet security agency that he had received "serious suspicions" of foreign interference, could not verify the claims, and asked the agency to investigate. The commission said the inquiry rests on classified intelligence. Interim commission director general Dean Livne called reports about the probe "totally unfounded" and said it "does not affect the final results to be presented to the president, nor does it concern any particular sector of the population." The commission also told a lawmaker in a letter that claims of "systematic violations of electoral integrity are baseless." Shin Bet said its investigation is not meant to cast suspicion on people who "exercised their right to vote democratically and legally." Israeli press reports pointed members of Netanyahu's party at Qatar, which called the accusations "ridiculous and dangerous."

Opposition leaders who campaigned to unseat Netanyahu must now decide whether to partner with Arab-led parties or join him in a unity government. Netanyahu posted on X on Friday that forming a coalition with Arab-led parties is forbidden and has suggested it would be a betrayal if his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, or others aligned with them. Arab citizens make up 20% of Israel's population and voted at a high rate, angered by Netanyahu's far-right allies including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose party lost seats.

Hundreds of Israelis have gathered to ask Eisenkot and others to work with Arab-led parties, an arrangement that has happened once before, briefly, in 2021. At a demonstration outside Eisenkot's home, Danny Elgarat, brother of the late hostage Itzik Elgarat, said: "Today we are here to ask for a change, an Arab-Jewish partnership. The Arabs of the land of Israel are not dangerous to security. They contribute to society."

The new Knesset members are due to be seated on November 10. Once assembled, Eisenkot's bloc could join with Arab-led parties to elect the speaker of the house, which would give that grouping control of the parliamentary agenda and the power to advance legislation before a government is formed. The commission wants Shin Bet's findings within a week. If Netanyahu leaves office, he would face years-old corruption charges, and an inquiry into security failures before the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack would almost certainly open.

Protesters gathered this week outside Gadi Eisenkot's residence, holding signs calling for a Jewish-Arab partnership and urging opposition leaders not to join a government with Benjamin Netanyahu.