Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he has been cured of early prostate cancer thanks to radiotherapy. The revelation was made in conjunction with the publication of the annual medical report on the prime minister’s state of health, which occurred two months later than usual. This latter circumstance also raised some criticism in the media.
«I asked to postpone the publication of the report for two months to prevent it from being released at the height of the war, to prevent the Iranian regime from spreading further false propaganda against Israel, explained the Israeli prime minister in a post on
At the height of the war with Iran, speculation had circulated on social media that Netanyahu had been injured or killed, and the prime minister had joked about the circumstance in some videos and during a press conference with foreign media.
On December 29, 2024, Netanyahu, 76, underwent surgery, announced to the public, for benign prostatic hypertrophy. Netanyahu’s attending physician, Prof. Aron Popovtzer, director of the oncology department at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, confirmed in a statement that, as part of routine checks following the surgery, Netanyahu was diagnosed – without specifying when – with “an early-stage prostate tumor measuring 0.9 centimeters.”
Netanyahu was offered the option of continuing the checks or undergoing radiotherapy, and he chose the latter, Popovtzer said, explaining that the prime minister underwent the treatment “two and a half months ago”, and that recent checks showed that “the disease has disappeared”. ”You already know me: when I am informed early about a possible danger, I want to address it immediately.
This applies both on a national and personal level. Thank God, I defeated this too,” Netanyahu added in his post. Opposition leader Yair Lapid, again on social media, wished Netanyahu “a speedy recovery and long life”.
The Israeli media instead focused on the lack of transparency of an intervention kept hidden from the public. «The prime minister hid from the public that he is suffering from cancer, during wartime. He and his doctors lied,” Uri Misgav, a Haaretz journalist, wrote in a post.