Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc on Thursday (October 29, 2026) piled pressure on Israeli Arab leaders over unproven accusations of foreign funding, in a push to neuter parties that could hold the key to forming a government after an inconclusive election.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog called for an investigation into allegations of fraud but cautioned against stigmatising the entire Arab Israeli community, who voted at unprecedented rates.

Israel was nearing the completion of ballot-counting from Tuesday’s (October 27, 2026) election, in which neither Mr. Netanyahu nor the Opposition bloc led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot looked able to secure a majority in the parliament known as the Knesset.

The Netanyahu camp’s accusations, which a key Arab party has rejected, could bring uncertainty to the electoral process at a time when the threat of a return to war with Iran looms over the region.

Israel’s election saw soaring participation by Israeli Arabs, descendants of Palestinians who stayed after the country’s creation in 1948, as outrage boiled at calls by officials such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to treat their community much as Israel has dealt with Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Following Mr. Netanyahu’s accusations of impropriety, Ben Gvir went so far as to encourage Israel to “immediately” order the arrests of Arab party leaders.

Raam party leader Mansour Abbas said he welcomed an investigation into claims of wrongdoing, adding that his moderate Islamist party had “no connection” with the accusations.

The Arab parties together have enough votes to take the opposition bloc over the finish line, but Mr. Eisenkot has baulked after relentless attacks by Mr. Netanyahu, who warned his right-wing Jewish base that voting for the Opposition would put Arabs in power.

‘Political earthquake’

Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, a conservative who heads the Central Election Commission, requested an investigation by the Shin Bet security service into allegations that Raam received money from Qatar, the energy-rich Gulf powerbroker that has channels to Hamas.

“The Raamgate scandal is a political earthquake. Israel’s elections have been stolen!” Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party said.

Government officials did not offer evidence to back the allegations, and left-wing candidate Yair Golan accused Mr. Netanyahu of attempting to stir controversy after failing to get a majority.

“Now he is trying to challenge the election results through an ugly delegitimisation campaign against the will of the people, and against the Arab public in particular.”

Mr. Netanyahu himself has long been under the cloud of allegations related to Qatar after the arrests last year of two of his aides for allegedly receiving payments from the Gulf state.

Qatar categorically denied the latest accusations of interference.

“They accuse Qatar of buying off Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli political left and now, in this latest campaign, the Arab vote,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said. “These accusations are ridiculous and dangerous in equal measure.”

Mr. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving Prime Minister, for years tacitly supported Qatar funding for Hamas-ruled Gaza, hoping to preserve stability.

That paradigm collapsed on October 7, 2023, when Hamas carried out the deadliest single attack ever on Israel.

Kingmakers under pressure

With nearly 93% of the vote counted, Mr. Netanyahu’s bloc was at 53 seats and the Opposition forces led by Mr. Eisenkot on 48 — both well under the 61 needed to form a government.

The two main Arab formations were on track for an unprecedented 19 seats between them.

Some observers quickly said that the allegations would help Mr. Netanyahu by making the Arab lawmakers even more toxic to Mr. Eisenkot.

Yousef Jabareen, the head of the leftist Arab-majority Joint List, told AFP on Wednesday (October 28, 2026) that he was willing to cooperate with the Opposition to bring down Mr. Netanyahu but without joining it in a government.

In response to the new allegations, Mr. Eisenkot promised “utmost vigilance” against election interference.

“On the other hand, we cannot allow political actors to exploit the situation and influence the timing of the inauguration of the 26th Knesset,” he said.

One of Mr. Eisenkot’s right-leaning allies, Avigdor Lieberman, called the allegations “dramatic and unprecedented” and urged a swift investigation.

An Israeli police statement said that they would investigate every complaint about election integrity.

The great survivor

Mr. Netanyahu had tried during the voting on Tuesday (October 27, 2026) to raise allegations of fraud, saying that Arab parties were caught with envelopes of cash, and his Likud party peddled the accusations throughout Thursday (October 29, 2026).

Police said they arrested three suspects but the election commission called it an isolated local case.

Another factor that could play into the formation of a government is an attack on Iran.

Mr. Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran, with his ally U.S. President Donald Trump, signalling he was ready to attack after next Tuesday’s (November 3, 2026) U.S. midterm elections.

Mr. Eisenkot has warned the military that Mr. Netanyahu has no mandate and that officers must put Israel’s security over the premier’s “political needs”.

An attack could raise pressure on Mr. Eisenkot to join an emergency unity government, an option he has publicly ruled out, or keep the clock running until Israel can call new elections.

President Herzog will decide after the official results whom to task with the first chance to form a government.

Published – October 29, 2026 08:03 pm IST

Gadi Eisenkot, the man who could unseat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, almost always dresses in plain black, speaks halting English and, reflecting the military culture that shapes him, responds in interviews in bullet-point lists.

For some voters, the 66-year-old Mr. Eisenkot’s lack of charisma may be one of his greatest assets.

Serious and unassuming, Mr. Eisenkot is in many ways the opposite of Mr. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest serving Prime Minister, who has flawless American-accented English and is ever ready with headline-grabbing soundbites on U.S. television or social media.

Mr. Eisenkot, the military chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, has vowed to unite Israelis after the divisive tenure of Mr. Netanyahu, who has moved the country sharply to the right.

“There is a large camp in Israel whose main goal in the coming election is just for things to be calmer,” said Tal Elovits, a researcher at the Molad think tank.

“The middle class,” he said, “is looking for someone who will look responsible, boring. I think Mr. Eisenkot has that appeal.”

Mr. Eisenkot, who is neck and neck with Mr. Netanyahu in polls, has promised to try to restore the international image of Israel, badly strained after three years of war in Gaza and violence in the occupied West Bank.

Mr. Eisenkot has vowed to crack down on West Bank settlers who have attacked Palestinians with impunity and recently beat up an American journalist and a French mayor, decrying the incidents as “Jewish terror” abetted by Mr. Netanyahu’s government.

But the military man is no peacenik. He has even sought to play to the right of Mr. Netanyahu by vowing no Palestinian state, replaying clips from an earlier political era in which the long-serving Prime Minister begrudgingly voiced openness to the idea under U.S. pressure.

Commanding the military during the 2006 war with Hezbollah, Mr. Eisenkot devised the so-called “Dahiya doctrine”, named after a Beirut suburb, in which Israel vowed massive force against civilian infrastructure in areas populated by the Lebanese militants.

Israel has adopted the doctrine again in Gaza, causing destruction that critics say amount to war crimes, an assertion disputed by Israel.

Working-class roots

Mr. Eisenkot has garnered broad public sympathy after his son Gal and two nephews were killed fighting in Gaza.

His working-class roots constitute another element of his appeal. He would be the first Prime Minister who is Sephardic, Jews who trace their recent origins to the West Asia and North Africa.

Unlike Mr. Netanyahu, who comes from an elite family and whose father was a prominent professor in the United States, Mr. Eisenkot is the son of Moroccan Jews, and grew up on Israel’s geographic periphery.

His background came into the spotlight when a senior commentator on the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 television station described Mr. Eisenkot as “a monkey” controlled by “Ashkenazi elitists”. He was referring to Jews of European descent who have historically dominated Israel’s political and economic institutions.

While the term is not necessarily a racial slur in Hebrew and can mean a “fall guy” taking the blame on behalf of others, the remark drew widespread condemnation from opposition politicians and from Mr. Netanyahu himself.

Mr. Eisenkot swiftly sought to turn the episode to his advantage.

His campaign erected billboards denouncing discrimination against the Sephardim, and his party accused Mr. Netanyahu of sidelining Sephardic members of the Likud by limiting their media appearances during the campaign.

Limited change on security

In a pair of weekend appearances, Mr. Eisenkot went from meeting LGBTQ activists, promising the community greater protection in a forum at a hip cafe, to meeting religious Jews to whom he defended Israeli control over the West Bank.

“Israeli settlement (of the West Bank) is a value, on condition that it serves the interests of the state of Israel, and it’s done according to the law,” he told representatives of the Religious Zionist movement on Sunday (October 18, 2026).

He appeared to be rejecting the establishment of unauthorised settlement outposts, which have fuelled a recent rise in violence against Palestinians.

On Gaza, he has vowed to end Hamas rule within 18 months. Last week he said this could be achieved either through the implementation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan, which envisages Hamas’s gradual disarmament and a transfer of power, or through “creative operations” aimed at destroying the movement’s military wing.

Addressing a key source of resentment among Israelis following three years of war, Mr. Eisenkot has promised to curb exemptions from military service for religious students.

He promised a “universal national service law” requiring ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab citizens to perform either military or civil service.

He has sought to appeal to centrist and liberal voters by pledging to “protect judicial independence, the rule of law, minority rights and a free press”.

Published – October 22, 2026 11:23 am IST

While Israel continues to attack one of Palestine’s two non-contiguous regions, Gaza, it is slowly and violently restructuring the other, West Bank.

Israel’s occupation of Judea and Samaria, the biblical term for West Bank used by the Israeli government, began in 1967 following the Six-Day War. Despite being considered illegal under international law, Israel has slowly been asserting “sovereignty” over the region with increased restrictions for Palestinians and expansion of Israeli settlements. And this has only intensified since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.

Nowhere is this clearer than in data on settlements and attacks on Palestinians. According to Peace Now, an Israeli activist group that tracks settlements, fewer than 5,000 Israelis lived in the West Bank in 1967. More than half a century later, the region now houses more than five lakh settlers. That is, around 5% of Israel’s population now live in the occupied West Bank.

On the ground, this has come with significant expansion. Peace Now data show that the Israeli government officially established more than 140 settlements and went through the full planning process.

While more than 40,000 housing units in West Bank settlements have been put out to tender since 2002, nearly a quarter of these were put out to tender in the past two years. Tenders refer to proposals issued by the government for the construction of housing units. However, the tender process is required only in 13 settlements and is not required in others, so the actual number of housing units being constructed could be much higher.

Further, nearly 430 outposts — Israeli settlements considered illegal even under Israeli law — have been established since the 1990s. More than 50% of these outposts were established in the past three years alone. Israeli law also allows “declaration” instead of “confiscation” of privately owned Palestinian land to build settlements. Through this, Israel has taken over 9,00,000 dunams of West Bank land.

This expansion, which undermines the two-state solution, is happening through Israeli institutions and is closely integrated with its politics.

Months after the October 7 Hamas attack, in July 2024, the Israeli Parliament declared that it was opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. A year later, the Knesset voted in favour of a historic declaration that officially supported the application of Israeli sovereignty to ‘Judea and Samaria’.

Though it was a non-binding resolution, the Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Amir Ohana, then said: “In 1967, the occupation did not start, it ended. That is the historical truth, and the one and only way to reach genuine peace is from [a position of] power.”

With Israel set to go to the polls later this month, the Netanyahu government has been tightening its grip on the West Bank. Two months before the elections, Israel published tenders for construction of 1,234 Israeli homes as part of its E1 settlement project that aims to create a continuous settlement ‘corridor’ between occupied East Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim.

It has also issued open calls for occupation. The country’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, on September 27, called for a full-scale war in the occupied West Bank and urged the military to use the tactics employed in Gaza.

“There are very specific communities who support settlement expansion and reject any settlement dismantling. And that’s most of the right-wing, but the ones who are most committed to it are the firm right…,” said Dahlia Scheindlin, a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy, an American think tank.

“The party of Smotrich, Religious Zionism, is polling at about five, six, even seven parliamentary seats, and many of those are people who really prioritise settlement expansion. But everybody else who’s voting for any party of the coalition is doing so with the assumption that they will always support settlements and reject any sort of dismantling there,” said Ms. Scheindlin.

But it is not just the ruling party. Parties contesting the coming polls seem to share a similar opinion on settlements.

Prominent parties like Gadi Eisenkot-led Yashar have expressed no interest in the evacuation of settlements and have proposed strengthening of the legally established settlements in the West Bank.

Impact on Palestinians

Meanwhile, for the nearly three million Palestinians in the West Bank, daily life has been synonymous with navigating the multiple layers of restrictions imposed by the Israeli government, such as checkpoints, road gates and other obstacles.

These restrictions have divided Palestinian communities and limited their movement and access to work, school, healthcare, farmland and even aid organisations.

They have also borne the brunt of settler aggression, which has starkly intensified in the aftermath of the 2023 Hamas attack. As per the UN OCHA, more than 1,200 settler attacks against Palestinians have been recorded each year since 2023. Over 1,600 attacks have been reported just between January and August this year.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in the past four years. At least 10,000 have been injured during this period.

These attacks have resulted in damage or demolitions to more than 6,000 Palestinian properties and displaced several thousands since 2023.

The UN noted in 2025 that displacement in the West Bank had hit levels not seen since the start of Israel’s occupation nearly 60 years ago. A year later, the settler attacks resulting in casualties and displacement and open calls for occupation have only surged.

Ms. Scheindlin said there is “a critical mass” in Israel for cracking down on settler violence, which she said is increasingly being understood as “terror.”

Part of the reason, she explained, is that many on the right think the violence harms the image of the settlement project and may draw international attention, and a crackdown will stop pressuring Israel on this issue.

International reaction

The mounting settler attacks have drawn sharp criticism from international actors.

For instance, Israel’s decision to publish tenders for its E1 settlement project in the West Bank was met with trade curbs from 12 countries. The U.K., France, and Canada, along with nine other countries, namely Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden, issued a joint statement on September 8, 2026, confirming their intention to introduce new restrictions on trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Only two months ago, the United Nations OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani expressed concern over the Israeli government’s announcement to further increase the number of settlements and open calls by Israeli leaders for revenge and collective punishment against Palestinian communities, accompanied by threats to turn the West Bank into another Gaza.

Pressure to boycott upcoming Nations League games against Israel over that country’s actions in Gaza took its toll on the Ireland team on Saturday (September 26, 2026) when players talked for hours, voted on their participation, and one departed the squad.

Ireland is due to play Israel in Debrecen, Hungary, in the first of those games on Sunday (September 27), but the team’s press conference and training session on Saturday (September 26) were delayed by more than five hours as the players again held discussions among themselves in the team hotel over whether they should play.

Bazunu takes a stand

Gavin Bazunu later confirmed on social media that he had left the squad. He said he felt it would be “wrong to participate” in the games “based purely upon my personal belief that the killing of innocent people is wrong.”

The 24-year-old reserve goalkeeper stressed his stance was “not in opposition of the Israeli people or the Jewish community but against the atrocities in the region. There are few times where you get a chance in life to stand up for something bigger and I strongly believe that this is one of them.”

David Courell, the CEO of the Football Association of Ireland, said at a long-delayed press conference earlier that an unnamed player’s “discomfort with fulfilling this fixture” had caused deliberations for the rest of the squad. He said a vote was taken among the players and that “a significant majority” favored continuing with the games.

“Based on that, the association took the decision on behalf of Irish football that this fixture would continue as we have always intended to fulfill the fixtures,” Courell said.

Bazunu, who reportedly told the team on Friday (September 25) night that he did not want to play, was not mentioned in the press conference, but Ireland coach Heimir Hallgrimsson said a player was leaving.

“All the rest of the players are training today,” Hallgrimsson said. “It’s an ongoing discussion and we haven’t come to a kind of conclusion on this, but we are going ahead, the game is going ahead, we’re going to train. And there will be more discussions tonight and probably tomorrow.”Black armbands

Black armbands

Courell said the players were uncomfortable dealing with questions “that are not about football,” so they had requested not to have to deal with media obligations around Sunday’s (September 27) match.

“They also have the intention of wearing black armbands in recognition of all lives lost in the conflict,” Courell said. “And also there will be elements of the pre-match ceremony that will not be partaken in.”

He added that both the players and the FAI will be making a “significant contribution” to charity from both match fees – neither of which is open to Irish fans – and from Ireland’s game against Austria in Dublin on Oct. 1.

Ireland’s national broadcaster RTÉ said last week it will only provide stripped-back coverage of the games vs. Israel to meet contractual obligations — with no studio presentation, commentary on the international feed, or analysis — while it will also not accept advertising or sponsorship around either game.

RTÉ also announced last week that Ireland will boycott the Eurovision Song Contest for a second year over Israel’s participation.

Pressure builds

The Ireland team has been coming under increasing pressure at home, where affinity with Palestinians is strong, to boycott the two games against Israel — Israel’s “home” game on Sunday (September 27) and Ireland’s “home” game in Backa Topola, Serbia on Oct. 4.

The FAI said in June that Ireland’s home game was moving to a neutral venue for “operational reasons” and that no fans will be present. That followed widespread calls to boycott the match, and the FAI’s own motion the previous November calling on UEFA to ban Israel from club and international competitions.

“There’s a huge support – probably in Europe the biggest support – for Palestine in Ireland,” Hallgrimsson said. “And there have been protests since the draw (in February) not to play this fixture. There’s been a protest from day one not to play the fixture in Ireland, and that’s the pressure that the players will feel and the association will feel. I felt that pressure growing day by day and it’s getting almost to a breaking limit now.”

Ireland midfielder Jason Knight said after Thursday’s (September 24) 1-0 loss in Kosovo that the players were in a difficult situation and that he didn’t think the matches should be going ahead.

Hallgrimsson previously said “we’re not playing with genocide, we’re playing against genocide. We’re playing against Israel, we’re not playing with Israel” — drawing a furious reaction from the Israeli soccer federation, which accused the Icelandic coach of “stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy.”

The FAI had resisted calls to boycott the matches, arguing the team could be hit with punishing sanctions by UEFA. Ireland is co-hosting the 2028 European Championship with England, Wales and Scotland.

More than 160 Irish sportspeople signed an open letter urging the FAI to reconsider its decision to go ahead with the fixtures.

There were protesters outside the team hotel in Dublin last week calling on the players to boycott the games. The SIPTU trade union displayed a huge poster in central Dublin beside the River Liffey asking the players to “Go with your conscience!” and “Don’t play with genocide” beside an image of a blood-splattered ball.

Former Ireland coach Brian Kerr said the FAI had “lost the respect of the Irish people” for going ahead with the games.

“The Irish people and the soccer-going public don’t want the games to be played,” Kerr said. “I think they’ve made their opinions clear over the last year. The FAI back in November actually went to UEFA and requested that Israel be put out of the tournament on a principle. And yet they went against that principle.”

UEFA did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday’s developments.

Published – September 27, 2026 08:57 am IST

The Israeli authorities had claimed to have taken control of the Ali al-Taher ridge last week. File
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a session at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, before it dissolves ahead of the 2026 Israeli elections, in Jerusalem, on July 16, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Men ride a scooter past the rubble of buildings damaged in Israeli strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs on July 6, 2026.
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Tensions appear to be emerging within the Israel–U.S. alliance as differences grow over how to deal with Iran. While Washington seems increasingly open to diplomatic engagement and a potential agreement, Israel continues to advocate a tougher, security-first approach amid escalating regional tensions.In this video, we examine the latest developments in Lebanon, President Trump’s dilemma, the UAE’s role in regional diplomacy, and more.

Israel is among the world’s leading arms exporters. Image used for representational purposes only.
| Photo Credit: Reuters