Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied reports that he has pancreatic cancer Thursday, telling a Tel Aviv court during a libel hearing that his physical condition has improved and that his health is “in the top decile.”
Netanyahu appeared at the Tel Aviv District Court for a hearing in a 500,000-shekel libel lawsuit he filed against journalists Uri Misgav and Ben Caspit and attorney Gonen Ben Yitzhak over what he says were false publications about his health. The three had posted on social media that Netanyahu had pancreatic cancer, which the prime minister denies.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; attorney Gonen Ben Yitzhak and journalists Ben Caspit and Uri Misgav in court
(Photo: Miriam Elster, Yariv Katz)
“My health is normal. Some say excellent,” Netanyahu told Judge Menachem Mizrahi at the start of the hearing. “I did not suffer at all from pancreatic cancer, as was reported in April 2024. If that were the case, I would no longer be here. This year, it has improved.”
Netanyahu added: “My health is in the top decile,” and warned of further legal action. “Those who claimed I was terminally ill are here. We will bring everyone to court and they will see the facts.”
Netanyahu said he underwent surgery Dec. 29 for benign prostate enlargement, which was reported Feb. 14, 2025.
“I suffered from an enlarged prostate and we decided to treat it,” he said. “Toward the end of 2025, we received an initial PSA indication. We did a test and it turned out to be the beginning of a cancerous tumor at an early stage. It was 8 millimeters, and the doctors told me there were two options — to treat it or not, and many people simply live with it. My approach is that if I identify a danger and receive an indication in time, both in managing the country and personally, I treat it and eliminate it.”
The prime minister said he received five radiation treatments in January and February, followed by a test that showed the tumor had been completely removed.
“End of story,” Netanyahu said. “And this was reported in April 2026, a few weeks later. That is my health situation. I have a pacemaker that has never activated since it was installed. My physical condition has continued to improve and is on the upper end of my health scale — not in the middle, not in the upper part, but in the top decile, according to the full range of indications.”
Ben Yitzhak’s attorney, Roni Caspi, told Netanyahu there had been many rumors about his medical condition and calls for information to be released.
Netanyahu replied: “Those who claimed I was terminally ill are here. We will bring everyone to court and they will see the facts. When I saw the tweet, I determined: ‘A lie. You are lying maliciously and we will bring you to court.’”
Asked how he learned of Ben Yitzhak’s post, Netanyahu said he did not know. Asked whether his son Yair Netanyahu may have alerted him, Netanyahu said: “It is possible. He updates me from time to time about tweets concerning me.”
Caspi questioned Netanyahu about the scope of his medical file. “My medical file is thicker than yours, and I am younger than you. How is it only 43 pages?” the attorney asked.
“I wish you good health,” Netanyahu replied. “We can bring my entire chain of doctors.”
Asked whether all hospitalizations and tests from recent years appeared in the file, Netanyahu said: “I don’t know. What is important appears. You claimed I was terminally ill. That is the terrible thing. It is a gross lie. You knew it was a gross lie, and I came here to show that you spread a gross lie.”
Caspi said there had been “a selective choice” of what to present in the medical file.
“No,” Netanyahu said. “What the medical team that treated me thought was right to present. Regarding all the treatments I received, including the pacemaker and hernia surgery and things like that. They did not report every loose fingernail. Everything major, my doctors reported, and they hid nothing. An entire industry of lies.”
Asked whether a prime minister’s hospital visit naturally raises questions, Netanyahu replied, “I know there is a procedure and I try to act according to it,” adding, “there is a certain practice, but not a law.”
Caspi also asked why specialists in pancreatic, liver and colon cancer were present during Netanyahu’s hernia treatment.
“I was under anesthesia,” Netanyahu said. “I did not go doctor by doctor and check each one’s specialty. There is no chance there was any possibility I had pancreatic cancer and they would not have told me. I have an excellent memory, and they would have told me if there were concern about that.”
The questioning later turned to Netanyahu’s social media accounts. Caspi asked whether Netanyahu was familiar with his accounts, including one under the name Benjamin Netanyahu with 4 million followers and another public account called “Prime Minister of Israel” with 98,000 followers.
Netanyahu said the Prime Minister’s Office spokesperson manages the prime minister’s official website, while several spokespeople handle his private account, “mainly Topaz Luk, who is here in the courtroom.”
Asked whether he knew Luk through his son Yair and whether Luk sometimes advises him, Netanyahu said, “Yes,” but added, “He does not control the site.”
Asked why Yair Netanyahu was not present, Netanyahu said: “I don’t know. At this moment, he is giving lectures in the United States.”
Asked whether every post published on his private Twitter account is known to him and approved by him, Netanyahu said: “It is a little difficult to do that. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.”
Judge Mizrahi last week ordered Netanyahu to submit his medical file so the court could determine when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The order came about two weeks after the Prime Minister’s Office released Netanyahu’s annual health report, which revealed that he had undergone surgery to remove a cancerous prostate tumor and received radiation treatments. Since the disclosure, Netanyahu’s office has not provided a full timeline of the process or answered questions about gaps and conflicting versions.
Netanyahu said at the time that he had asked to delay the medical report by two months “so it would not be published at the height of the war and allow the terror regime in Iran to spread more false propaganda against Israel.”
But his doctor, Prof. Aharon Popovtzer, said the treatment Netanyahu underwent “was carried out about three months ago,” before the start of the war against Iran on Feb. 28. Public broadcaster Kan also reported that Netanyahu was diagnosed with prostate cancer in October last year, nearly six months before the war began.
The lawsuit stems from social media posts published in May 2024.
Ben Yitzhak wrote: “Recently, rumors have spread about your health. Following your visit last night to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, I received information that you were treated for pancreatic cancer.”
Misgav wrote that month: “Grandpa, why is your skin yellowish-green and your eyes watery? You are speaking very fast and not at a natural pace. What medications are you taking?” He later wrote that Netanyahu had visited Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital the previous night.
Caspit reported that month that retired Maj. Gen. Amiram Levin had met with Netanyahu and, “according to testimonies, he was shocked. He said that based on what he heard and saw in the office, Netanyahu is unfit and even dangerous to the state.”
Ben Yitzhak said in his defense filing that he published the post after receiving no response from the Prime Minister’s Office regarding Netanyahu’s health amid rumors on the matter, and argued that it did not constitute defamation.
Misgav said his remarks were not defamatory and that, under accepted legal standards, it is permissible to raise questions about the health of an elected official. He argued that Netanyahu was seeking to silence a journalist who disagrees with him.
Caspit said he did not refer to Netanyahu’s medical condition at all. He said his report was a permitted account of Levin’s opinion and that the lawsuit was intended to silence criticism of Netanyahu.