Israel’s Shin Bet finds no evidence of foreign election meddling: Report

Israel’s Shin Bet has failed to find evidence of foreign interference in last month’s elections, despite claims from the domestic security agency’s chief, David Zini, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the newspaper Haaretz has reported. Two senior Israeli law enforcement officials said that the investigation, which is still ongoing, has found no evidence that several hundred thousand shekels had been transferred from the Palestinian Authority (PA) to Arab-led parties in Israel, Haaretz reported on Monday.

There were no transfers from Qatar or any other Arab country being investigated. That’s despite allegations from Netanyahu’s party, Likud, that money had been transferred to boost turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel, without the party providing any tangible evidence to support its claims.

The allegations continue a long-running anti-Qatar campaign in Israel that predates the election. Haaretz has previously reported that a secret campaign involving Israeli influence expets and political advisers targeted Qatar in the weeks after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks.