Thousands rally in Israel for Eisenkot-Arab parties deal to unseat Netanyahu

■ Steady

Thousands rally in Israel over Eisenkot deal with Arab parties as coalition talks stall

On Saturday night, thousands demonstrated in Tel Aviv urging Gadi Eisenkot to strike a deal with Arab parties to remove Netanyahu, while Netanyahu supporters held a counterprotest rejecting a government with "terrorists". Earlier on Saturday, Netanyahu and Eisenkot were reported to be competing to assemble a coalition, and Qatar rejected Israeli allegations of interference in the election. No bloc has a majority after the vote.

• Final results gave Netanyahu's party and allies 53 seats, and the opposition bloc led by Eisenkot 48; 61 are needed to govern.
• The opposition has a majority only if the Jewish opposition bloc works with Palestinian-Israeli parties, which have made record gains.
• Likud alleged without evidence that voter fraud drove the Arab parties' gains, and Netanyahu claimed they used foreign backing. Critics accuse him of smear tactics.
• Israel's Central Elections Committee asked the Shin Bet chief to investigate alleged Qatari interference, which Qatar rejects.