Court rejects PM’s request to testify just once this week in criminal trial
Netanyahu’s lawyer had asked to reduce appearances due to post-surgery infection; court instead agrees to shorten each of the three hearings by two hours

The Jerusalem District Court rejected a request on Saturday from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense attorney for the premier to testify just once this coming week in his criminal trial, but agreed instead to shorten the duration of each of the three scheduled hearings.
Netanyahu is therefore expected to testify on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., instead of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Breaks in the hearing will be held “as needed,” the court said in a two-sentence decision.
Netanyahu’s defense lawyer Amit Hadad had requested on Friday that the prime minister be allowed to testify just once instead of three times over the coming week, due to what he said were medical complications following the prime minister’s recent prostate removal surgery.
He asserted that Netanyahu was suffering from an infection as a result of the surgery, and as such, his recovery process demanded that he make a “gradual return” to full activity. Hadad also stated that the premier’s recovery was complicated by his work, given “the weight of the issues that come before the prime minister.”
The attorney said that Netanyahu was advised by his doctors to “avoid continuous activity for more than three hours without rest over the next week,” as well as long rides, and sitting and standing for extended periods.
According to Hadad, this precluded the “ride to Tel Aviv for the hearings, and certainly a testimony that lasts several hours.”

Netanyahu’s testimony is being held in the Tel Aviv District Court since it has security features that the Jerusalem court lacks.
In the six hearings in which he has testified so far, the prime minister has for the most part testified sitting down, mostly for a maximum of two hours before a break is called.
Netanyahu’s testimony has so far seen several delays, both before and after it began, due to various requests by his attorneys.
On Saturday evening the prosecution said it opposed Netanyahu’s latest appeal, noting that it had reviewed his medical records and did not see a reason to grant it. Instead, it agreed to longer breaks during the hearings and for each session to be shortened.
The court initially postponed Netanyahu’s testimony by two weeks following his December 29 surgery, and then by an additional week after Hahad requested it be pushed back again due to “post-operative medical developments.”
The prosecution agreed to the two-week deferral “provided the doctors’ advice is implemented in full” — a thinly veiled jab at Netanyahu, who, against his doctors’ advice, traveled to the Knesset to cast a key vote on a crucial spending bill two days after his operation.
The premier began his testimony on December 10, and was to testify for six hours each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday until the end of the month.
However, he has testified only six times so far and failed to testify three times a week since he took the stand. The testimony’s start was delayed by eight days after Netanyahu’s legal team said it hadn’t had enough time to prepare, and the court canceled Netanyahu’s December 17 hearing due to his visit that day to the Syrian side of Mount Hermon following the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
The premier’s testimony had already been previously delayed amid the war in Gaza, sparked when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
While Netanyahu’s critics say he should suspend himself to attend to his legal matters, the premier has insisted he is able to manage both the country and his legal affairs. At the same time, he and his allies have repeatedly called on the court to defer the testimony to let him attend to matters of state.
Netanyahu’s testimony began eight years after prosecutors launched an investigation into his dealings with media moguls and billionaire businessmen. The premier is charged with several counts of fraud and breach of trust, and one count of bribery. He denies wrongdoing and has said the charges were fabricated by the state prosecution and police investigators in an attempted political coup. In court, Netanyahu has largely ridiculed the charges against him.