PM tells court he’s at ‘top of health scale,’ says now-treated cancer diagnosed late 2025
Netanyahu says his wellness in 'top 10th percentile,' provides first timeline of prostate tumor, amid defamation lawsuit against journalists who claimed he had pancreatic cancer
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he is in fine health, speaking at a hearing at the Tel Aviv District Court for a libel suit he filed against two journalists and a political activist for claiming he was suffering from various serious diseases in 2024.
“My health situation is fine, some would say excellent,” Netanyahu told the court.
Netanyahu said he never suffered from pancreatic cancer, as activist Gonen Ben Yitzhak had claimed, adding he would have died by now if that had been correct.
The prime minister detailed the surgery for an enlarged prostate he underwent in December 2024 and his subsequent diagnosis that he had prostate cancer, which he said happened “toward the end of 2025.”
The tumor was “eight millimeters, and the doctors told me there were two possibilities — to treat it, or not, and that a lot of people simply live with it,” he said.
“And my approach is that if I identify a danger, and an indication is brought to me in time — in matters of state and personally — I take care of it and destroy it,” he said, alluding to his frequent claim that he hadn’t been warned by the security establishment about Hamas’s planning of the onslaught of October 7, 2023.
Netanyahu said he underwent five treatments for radiation therapy in January and February of this year, and that these treatments totally eradicated the cancer.
The account provided the first public revelation of the timeline for his cancer, the existence of which he only revealed last month.
The information appeared to be somewhat at odds with a statement by the doctor who headed the team that dealt with Netanyahu’s cancer treatment, Prof. Aron Popovtzer, who said at the end of April that the prime minister started radiation therapy “about two and a half months ago,” which would have been in the second week of February.
The prime minister also told the court that a pacemaker he had fitted in 2023 due to a problematic heart condition has never been activated.
“My physical condition has been improving and is at the top of the health scale. Not in the middle, not at the top, but in the top 10th percentile, according to all indications,” insisted Netanyahu.
Court had ordered PM to hand over medical records
The hearing — which the premier left after some 35 minutes, citing schedule pressures — came after Netanyahu was ordered by the court earlier this month to hand over up-to-date medical records. The file, which had to be submitted by Wednesday, was to be sealed and not made publicly available.
Netanyahu sued journalists Ben Caspit and Uri Misgav, as well as activist Gonen Ben Yitzhak, in 2024, alleging the three had spread lies about his health. The prime minister is seeking compensation of up to NIS 500,000 ($135,000).
The defendants “spread false and malicious information against the prime minister,” the suit claimed, stating that the three claimed that “the prime minister is sick with pancreatic cancer, is unfit [to serve in his role], and more.”
ראש הממשלה תבע חצי מיליון מגונן בן יצחק, אורי משגב ובן כספית בגלל טענות על מצבו הבריאותי. הבוקר הוא מעיד בבית המשפט. יהיה מעניין, כל העדכונים יהיו כאן בשרשור >>> pic.twitter.com/EhITXHrUMJ
— אנה פינס Anna Pines (@AnnaPines_) May 14, 2026
In Thursday’s hearing, Ben Yitzhak’s attorney pressed Netanyahu, saying: “My medical file is thicker than yours, and I’m younger than you. How can it be just 43 pages?” — to which Netanyahu replied: “I wish you health; I can bring you all my medical records,” according to quotes by the Ynet news site.
Asked whether the premier’s file included all of his hospitalizations and tests, Netanyahu replied: “I don’t know, what’s important is presented. You claimed I was terminally ill, that’s terrible. That was a blatant lie, you knew it was a blatant lie, and I came here to show that you spread a blatant lie.”
The prime minister’s health has been under increased scrutiny in recent years, with some making unverified claims regarding it.
In March 2024, the premier was put under full anesthesia to undergo surgery for a hernia. That same month, he missed several days of work after contracting the flu.
In 2023, he underwent surgery to have a pacemaker installed after suffering a transient heart block. The surgery came a week after he was hospitalized for what he said at the time was dehydration.
The incident led to speculation regarding the prime minister’s health and to what degree details had been hidden from the public.
Until the vague document shared last month, the last time Netanyahu had published an annual health report was in December 2023. Before that, the last such document he published was for 2016, according to the Movement for Freedom of Information.
Protocols for the disclosure of the prime minister’s health were developed by the Prime Minister’s Office in 2010, but are not enshrined in law.