A day and a half has passed since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed he underwent targeted radiation treatment for prostate cancer, but his office has yet to provide a full timeline of the process or answer questions about discrepancies and conflicting accounts.
Netanyahu said Friday he asked to delay the release of his medical report by two months “so that it would not be published at the height of the war, in order not to allow the terrorist regime in Iran to spread further false propaganda against Israel.” However, his physician, Prof. Aharon Popovtzer, said the treatment took place two and a half months ago — before the war that began on Feb. 28.
In addition, Israel’s Kan 11 public broadcaster reported that Netanyahu was diagnosed with prostate cancer as early as October of last year, nearly six months before the outbreak of the war. The Prime Minister’s Office has not officially stated when the diagnosis was made.
“I underwent targeted treatment that removed the problem without leaving a trace. I came in for a few short treatments, read a book and continued working. The spot disappeared completely. Thank God, I overcame this as well,” Netanyahu said.
If the diagnosis did occur last October, it would have been about six months after Netanyahu’s medical file was submitted to Central District Magistrate’s Court President Menachem Mizrahi as part of a defamation lawsuit Netanyahu filed over claims that he had pancreatic cancer or another undisclosed medical condition. Mizrahi wrote at the time that he had reviewed the file, “which includes 43 documents relating mainly to the years 2022 to 2025. I examined them thoroughly and found no evidence in the file that could assist the disputed matter.”
The lawsuit described the claims as “malicious and vicious lies” and said the prime minister is “completely healthy for his age.” Asked whether full details had indeed been provided, the judiciary said: “This is a query concerning legal proceedings, which should be addressed within the legal process, not in the media. The parties may submit their requests and the court will act accordingly.”
According to the version provided by the prime minister, on Dec. 29, 2024, he underwent surgery to remove an enlarged prostate. After that procedure, his doctors said there was “no suspicion of malignancy or cancer.” Nearly a year and four months have passed since then, during which Netanyahu underwent a follow-up MRI scan, received results indicating a cancerous tumor and also underwent radiation therapy. It is unclear when the treatments took place, though Netanyahu said there were “a few sessions.”
The Prime Minister’s Office said Friday that no metastases were found and that the lesion was very small. “In such cases, it is possible to continue with close monitoring alone or to undergo short, targeted radiation treatment. The prime minister chose the treatment option,” the office said, adding that the therapy, led by Prof. Popovtzer along with Dr. Mark Vigoda and Dr. Shraga Gross, “was fully successful, with complete disappearance of the lesion, as demonstrated by all imaging and laboratory tests.”
The information in the health report was not published as an official document from Hadassah Medical Center but on plain paper without a logo, signed by Hadassah physicians — Popovtzer, Vigoda and Gross. The doctors signed their names without official stamps, as is customary in formal medical documents. The document was dated April 20, four days before the information was made public.
Hadassah said in response: “The document issued by the Prime Minister’s Office is signed by three of Hadassah’s senior physicians and is part of the prime minister’s health declaration. Hadassah Medical Center has reported only the truth over the years. The prime minister’s hospitalizations have been reported to the public with the required transparency.”