Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev (L) attend the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on December 11, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had two small polyps removed from his digestive system during a routine medical examination on Friday morning, officials said. Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev briefly served as acting prime minister while he was indisposed.
Netanyahu had what the PMO called a “periodic gastrointestinal follow-up examination,” under sedation, at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. The hospital said in a statement that “the prime minister is in excellent health” and that he had “fully resumed his duties.”
Yair Netanyahu (R) speaking during a 68th birthday party for his father, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C), October 26, 2017. (Screen capture: YouTube)
With no permanent deputy prime minister, Netanyahu has taken to naming different cabinet ministers to serve as acting prime minister while undergoing medical procedures under sedation or traveling abroad.
In recent years he has appointed Likud ministers Yisrael Katz, Gilad Erdan, Ze’ev Elkin, Yariv Levin and Yuval Steinitz to the post while he was indisposed.
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Regev, a former Israel Defense Forces spokesperson and a controversial and outspoken Netanyahu loyalist, was named acting prime minister in June while Netanyahu traveled to Greece, marking the first time a woman was appointed as acting prime minister under Netanyahu. Former foreign minister Tzipi Livni would regularly fill in for then-prime minister Ehud Olmert.
Raoul Wootliff contributed to this report.
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