Jerusalem (AFP) - The head of Israel’s Central Elections Committee said on Sunday that an ongoing investigation into alleged foreign funding in the country’s recent vote would not call into question its result, noting that so far “suspicions remain suspicions”.

The Shin Bet security agency launched the inquiry last week, at the elections chief’s request, to determine whether the Arab Israeli party Raam received money from Qatar – an accusation both the Gulf state and the party deny.

In the days since, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party have relentlessly accused Arab groupings of having “stolen” the vote, in which they notched unprecedented gains and made themselves potentially instrumental to the formation of an opposition-led government.

Elections committee head and Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, flanked by the head of the Shin Bet and Israel’s attorney general, assured Israelis in a video message on Sunday that “your choice at the ballot box will be respected” and that the elections “were conducted properly”.

“If any irregularities exist, they are currently under review,” he said, adding that as yet, “suspicions remain suspicions”.

“We will examine them thoroughly and get to the very bottom of the matter in order to establish the full truth,” he continued.

“Our position is that even if the suspicions are ultimately confirmed, this would not call into question the integrity of the electoral process or the overall results of the elections.”

Likud said on Sunday that it was “puzzling” that Sohlberg could acknowledge the gravity of the allegations, while also insisting they would not affect the vote.

“Until the investigation is concluded, a dark cloud hangs over the election results in Israel,” it said.

Netanyahu’s main rival Gadi Eisenkot, who has accused the premier of attempting to delegitimise the results, welcomed Sohlberg’s statement.

“The vile and malicious attempt to deny the election results, to undermine the will of the public, to smear an entire community, and to drag Israel into additional elections has failed,” he said on X.

- ‘Ridiculous and dangerous’ -

Tuesday’s hard-fought vote did not deliver an outright parliamentary majority to any bloc, with Netanyahu and his allies winning 53 seats and Eisenkot’s camp securing 48 – both well short of the 61 needed to form a government.

The results did, however, cement the rise of the Arab groupings Raam and the Joint List, with the two winning a combined 19 seats.

Eisenkot, who ran a campaign casting Netanyahu as unfit to lead, is weighing whether to accept the Arab parties’ support in forming a government to unseat the premier – something many of his voters have urged him to do, despite some of his coalition allies’ opposition.

Netanyahu’s claims of malfeasance by Arab parties began on election day itself, following a campaign in which he cast them as a threat to the country.

That strategy played a hand in driving unprecedented turnout among Israel’s Arab minority – descendants of Palestinians who stayed after the country’s creation in 1948 and who account for about 20 percent of the population.

Raam chief Mansour Abbas has denied the allegations of foreign funding, welcomed an investigation and said his party has “no connection whatsoever to the affair”.

Qatar called the accusations “ridiculous and dangerous”.

Noting on Sunday that the review of the allegations would continue in “utmost seriousness”, Sohlberg insisted that “these remarks must in no way cast doubt on the vote of the Arab community”.

“The citizens who went to the polls exercised their democratic right,” he said.

- Suspect released -

An Israeli court, meanwhile, released a suspect arrested on election day over a separate case of suspected vote-buying for Raam, while extending the police custody of another and placing a third under house arrest, police said on Sunday.

The police had previously said that three people were arrested with envelopes and cash on suspicion of trying to buy votes for Raam, which denied any involvement with the case.

The Times of Israel quoted Judge Eran Tzabari as saying he had ordered house arrest for the one suspect because of the “serious suspicions” he faced, though the case against him had not become stronger, and had “even weakened”, since his arrest.

The outlet reported that the judge had also criticised police for not bringing new evidence to support the extended detention of the suspect who was ordered to be released.

Netanyahu had publicised the arrests in a video on election day, saying they showed why his supporters needed to “go to the polling station and vote Likud”.