Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complained of a cough and a cold during his testimony under cross-examination in the Tel Aviv District Court on Wednesday morning, leading the judges to agree to his request to truncate the hearing.
Netanyahu said the cold had “refused to get better” and that his doctor recommended he take several days’ rest or at least shorten his workday. His office later said that he was suffering from bronchitis.
The hearing had been scheduled to end at 4:30 p.m., but Netanyahu requested at around midday that he testify for only another hour or two.
He then went home to rest, his office said.
The request immediately sparked criticism of the prime minister, who visited newly released hostages at Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva on Tuesday night, where he was pictured hugging and embracing several of them.
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“If Netanyahu has a cold that refuses to subside, as he claimed today in court, why did he visit survivors of captivity with weakened immune systems yesterday and put them at risk?” Prof. Hagai Levine, head of the medical division of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, wrote on X.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embraces released hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal at Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva, October 14, 2025. (Avi Ohayon/GPO)
In photos released by the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday, Netanyahu could be seen sitting next to and hugging released hostages Eitan Mor, Alon Ohel, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Avinatan Or and Evyatar David.
Netanyahu’s office asserted on Wednesday that his illness “poses no danger to him or those around him.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara visiting released hostage Alon Ohel at Beilinson Hospital, in Petah Tikva, October 14, 2025. (Avi Ohayon/GPO)
Later Wednesday, the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital released a statement reiterating that the prime minister was not infectious.
The hospital said that Netanyahu had a residual respiratory tract inflammation that was treated with appropriate medication and that “there was and is no danger of infection to people who have been near the prime minister.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara visiting released hostage Avinatan Or at Beilinson Hospital, in Petah Tikva, October 14, 2025. (Avi Ohayon/GPO)
Netanyahu, who turns 76 next week, has battled health issues in recent years. He had his prostate removed in late December 2024, and in March of that year, he had hernia surgery. 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. A week earlier, he had been hospitalized for what he said at the time was dehydration. Doctors subsequently revealed that the prime minister had had a heart conduction problem for years.
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