Benjamin Netanyahu has been hit with food poisoning and ordered by doctors to conduct state affairs from home for the next three days.
On Sunday, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office announced the 75-year-old is recovering at home after being diagnosed with intestinal inflammation caused by spoiled food.
Due to the sudden bout of sickness, Netanyahu’s upcoming hearings in his corruption trial have now been postponed. The next court appearance will not come before September now, due to a summer recess in the court system.
Netanyahu was examined overnight by Professor Alon Hershko of Jerusalem’s Hadassah-Ein Kerem Medical, after skipping a cabinet meeting on Saturday, and is now receiving intravenous fluid treatment for dehydration.
‘In accordance with his doctors’ instructions, the prime minister will rest at home for the next three days and will conduct state affairs from there,’ says the Prime Minister’s Office.
Netanyahu’s condition was declared ‘good’ after further testing, his office added.
The leader had been scheduled to give testimony in court tomorrow and Tuesday but his lawyer Amit Hadad requested that the hearings be postponed and asked for a delay.
The request filed with the Jerusalem District Court on his behalf said that the premier will ‘make an effort’ to testify on Wednesday instead.
On Sunday, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office announced the 75-year-old is recovering at home after being diagnosed with intestinal inflammation caused by spoiled food
Due to the sudden bout of sickness, Netanyahu’s upcoming hearings in his corruption trial have now been postponed
The leader had been scheduled to give testimony in court tomorrow and Tuesday but his lawyer Amit Hadad requested that the hearings be postponed and asked for a delay
The State Attorney’s Office earlier agreed to postpone the two scheduled hearings after reviewing Netanyahu’s medical records, but said that they must be made up by the end of the week.
‘Under the circumstances, and considering what is written in the medical record, we cannot object,’ it said in response. ‘However, in light of the many hearings that have been canceled recently, we will request that the defendant testify on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.’
The court said, however, that it was canceling the hearings rather than postponing them, as they could not be held later in the week due to scheduling conflicts.
This means Netanyahu will not testify again until September at the earliest, as the courts head into summer recess this week until September 5.
During the recess, courts will operate in a reduced capacity.
Netanyahu’s testimony has been repeatedly delayed since it started in December last year, due to the prime minister’s medical issues, the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza, the war with Iran, as well as diplomatic trips abroad and Netanyahu’s general duties as prime minister.
Just last month, an Israeli court cancelled hearings in Netanyahu’s long-running corruption trial, accepting a request made by the prime minister on classified diplomatic and security grounds.
‘Following the explanations given … we partially accept the request and cancel at this stage Mr Netanyahu’s hearings scheduled for this week’, the Jerusalem district court said in its ruling, published online by Netanyahu’s Likud party.
The ruling said that new reasons provided by Netanyahu, the head of Israel’s spy agency the Mossad and the military intelligence chief justified cancelling the hearings.
Demonstrators protest against Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu outside the court in Tel Aviv, December 10, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears before the District Court in Tel Aviv to testify for the first time in his corruption trial in Tel Aviv, Israel on December 10, 2024
Supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold up signs outside Tel Aviv’s court as Netanyahu testifies in a corruption trial on December 10, 2024
Also last month, US President Donald Trump called for Israel to ‘pardon’ Netanyahu, who is on trial for alleged corruption, or drop the case altogether.
The Israeli prime minister has denied charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, for which he has been on trial since 2020.
The recent food poisoning incident is not the first time the Israeli Prime Minister’s health has made headlines, as he has suffered from several health issues in recent years.
He had his prostate removed in late December, and in March 2024, he was 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 he had been hospitalised for what he said at the time was dehydration.
Doctors subsequently revealed that the prime minister has had a heart conduction problem for years.
Netanyahu’s most recent public medical report, issued in January 2023, described him as in a ‘completely normal state of health,’ with no signs of arrhythmia and the pacemaker functioning properly.
The document, however, was not an official government health report but rather a summary compiled by his personal medical team.
Despite government protocols urging prime ministers to release annual health summaries, Netanyahu issued no such report between 2016 and 2023, and none has been released this year.
Those protocols are not legally binding, and he cannot be compelled to disclose his medical history.
