Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been slammed for leveling “baseless” accusations against Arab Israelis, who won unprecedented number of seats, as an attempt to remain in power after his coalition lost its parliamentary majority.

Netanyahu’s Likud party claimed that Israel’s election was “stolen” by Arab Palestinians who turned out in record numbers to have a voice in Israel's apartheid system.

On Wednesday night, Netanyahu posted a statement by Likud online, which described the claimed violations as “an attack on democracy whose purpose is to lead to a foreign takeover of the Knesset, the Islamization of Israel, and the overthrow of rightwing rule”.

Netanyahu, who has run Israeli occupied territories for 19 of the past 30 years, and his allies urged the internal spy agency, Shin Bet, to investigate alleged foreign interference in the vote.

Israeli politicians and media outlets aligned with the regime have accused Qatar of funding vote-buying and voter mobilization to boost turnout among Arabs.

Netanyahu’s son, Yair, took to social media platform X, to echo the allegations, claiming Qatar, Turkey and other Arab states had stolen the election.

Qatar categorically dismissed the accusations as “ridiculous and dangerous”.

"The repeated invocation of Qatar in Israeli electoral rhetoric reveals an excessive obsession with our country among certain Israeli political and media figures,” Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said on X.

"Qatar should not be used as a scapegoat for the political failures of certain Israeli politicians," he added.

According to final results released early on Friday, Netanyahu’s far-right coalition won 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset and the main opposition bloc took 48 seats. Meanwhile, the two Arab parties, the Joint List and Ra’am, won the remaining 19 seats, giving them a decisive role in coalition negotiations.

Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of the main opposition bloc, accused Netanyahu and his Likud party of attempting to derail the election results.

“It’s already clear that Likud and Netanyahu have embarked on a coordinated, organized campaign seeking to delegitimize the results of the election,” Eisenkot said in a video message.

The attack on Arabs is apparently aimed at preventing the Jewish and Arab opposition from voting together in the new Knesset to oust the incumbent speaker, Amir Ohana, a Likud politician and former Shin Bet official.

It also came as Eisenkot faced the prospect of working with Palestinian-led parties to oust Netanyahu from power.

The leaders of the Joint List and Eisenkot's “Change” bloc, however, have ruled out a formal coalition.

The Likud said, “It is clear that no Zionist party should cooperate with Ra’am and the Joint List, replace the Knesset speaker through votes bought for cash, and form a cabinet that is dangerous to Israel.”

Netanyahu and his allies’ allegations were also dismissed by police officers and members of the election committee and other Israeli officials.

The acting director general of the central elections committee, Dean Livneh, said there was no basis for the claims.

The president, Isaac Herzog, also rebuked Netanyahu, calling for avoiding “tarnishing an entire community”.

Yousef Jabareen, the Joint List leader, criticized the prime minister over incitement.

“Netanyahu was defeated at the ballot box,” Jabareen said, noting that he “refuses to come to terms with the fact that the Arab public voted and decided”.

Ahmad Tibi, a party leader on the Joint List, said Netanyahu is trying to subvert the election results by trying to sabotage a common front between the Eisenkot bloc and the Arab parties.

“This entire campaign is directed against Eisenkot, to prevent him, intimidate and scare him off forming a cabinet that relies on external support from the Joint List or Ra’am,” Tibi said.

Political deadlock looms as exit polls show Israeli parties falling short of Knesset majority: Reports

Exit polls from the Israeli regime’s general election reportedly indicate that both competing parties are projected to fall well short of securing a parliamentary majority.

On Thursday, Israel’s far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for the arrest of Arab party leaders, and the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, demanded they be subjected to Shin Bet interrogation.

Moshe Feiglin, a settler ranked second on the Religious Zionism party slate led by Smotrich, called for the election results to be annulled.

“We are done apologizing and defending ourselves against filthy lies and baseless accusations from right-wing figures who refuse to accept the election results,” the Joint List said.

Mansour Abbas, leader of the Ra’am party, denied any involvement in the alleged affair and promised full cooperation with the investigation.

“To [Netanyahu], who employs Qatari agents in his office, we have one message in response to the campaign of incitement and delegitimization he is waging against Arab citizens: there will be nothing [found], because there is nothing,” he said.

The record turnout among Arabs is reportedly driven by outrage at routine discrimination and fear that it could become far worse if more extremist members of the cabinet, such as Ben-Gvir, and Smotrich, secure another term in office.