Netanyahu tells court he’s at ‘top of health scale,’ says now-treated cancer diagnosed late 2025
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims he is in perfect health during a hearing at the Tel Aviv District Court for a libel suit Netanyahu 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 tells the court, according to Hebrew media reports.
Netanyahu says he never suffered from pancreatic cancer, as activist Gonen Ben Yitzhak claimed, saying he would have died by now if that would have been correct.
The prime minister details the surgery for an enlarged prostate he underwent in December 2024 and his subsequent diagnosis that he had prostate cancer, which he says happened “towards the end of 2025.”
Netanyahu says he underwent five treatments for radiation therapy in January and February of 2026 and that these treatments totally removed the cancer. This is the first public revelation of the timeline for his cancer, which he only revealed last month.
This information appears 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 tells 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,” insists Netanyahu.