Police arrested four additional suspects Thursday morning in connection with an alleged attempt to bribe voters to encourage them to vote for the Ra'am party in the elections for the 26th Knesset.
Three of the four suspects arrested are school principals from the Negev communities of Tel Sheva and Segev Shalom.
The arrests follow the detention of three other suspects from southern Israel on election day, bringing the total number of suspects arrested in the case to seven.
The investigation has been transferred to the National Fraud Investigation Unit (NFU) at Lahav 433, where the suspects are being questioned.
The investigation began amid suspicions of an attempt to bribe citizens in exchange for votes for the Ra'am party.
During searches of the homes of the first suspects, police found envelopes containing tens of thousands of shekels in cash. Investigators suspect the money was intended to be used to bribe voters in exchange for votes for the party.
One of the suspects offered a different explanation, claiming that the money found in the envelopes was intended for distribution as donations to needy families on behalf of the Islamic Movement, rather than for election bribery.
Following developments in the investigation, authorities decided to transfer the case to Lahav 433. The four additional suspects, including the three school principals, were arrested Thursday morning.
The arrests come against the backdrop of a separate investigation by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) into suspicions of foreign interference in the elections through the transfer of funds from sources outside Israel, including entities in Qatar and Turkey.
However, at this stage, no connection is known to exist between the election bribery investigation in southern Israel and the suspicions of Qatari interference in the elections.