Benjamin Netanyahu overcame initial prostate cancer, a “stain of less than a centimeter”, without metastases and delayed the report for two months to avoid Iranian propaganda in the middle of the war.
At the time, Netanyahu himself informed the public through an X video: “Last week they put a monitoring device on me. The device beeped and told me that I need a pacemaker, and I need to put it on tonight. I feel great, but I follow my doctors' instructions.”
In a context of high international tension and war, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, publicly revealed that he secretly underwent treatment for early-stage prostate cancer, information that he decided to keep confidential for months for reasons strategic. The president's annual medical report was finally published on Friday, April 24, after Netanyahu himself requested to delay its release. As he explained in a statement released on the social network X, his decision responded to a political-military calculation: to prevent information from being used by “the Iranian terrorist regime” as a propaganda tool at the height of the war
.In that same message, the Israeli leader said he was in “excellent physical condition” after having undergone the intervention. He later explained: “I had a minor medical problem with my prostate that was completely treated. Thank God, it's already behind us.” Netanyahu, 76, specified that the diagnosis came during a routine medical check-up following a previous surgery. In that examination, the specialists detected “a small spot of less than one centimeter” in the prostate, which was confirmed as “a very early stage of a malignant tumor without metastasis
of any kind”.
Far from opting for a passive strategy, the Prime Minister explained his decision to act immediately: “When they inform me in time about a possible danger, I want to deal with it immediately. This applies both nationally and personally, and that's what I did.” The treatment, he explained, was brief and effective: “I underwent a specific treatment that eliminated the problem without leaving a trace. I attended a few short sessions, read a book and kept working. The stain completely disappeared.”
The president also expressed gratitude to the health personnel: “Thank God, I overcame this too,” he said, before thanking the doctors and “the wonderful medical teams” who assisted him during the process. This episode is in addition to a series of recent medical history. About a year and a half ago, Netanyahu had already undergone surgery for a benign prostate tumor, an intervention that he described as successful. Since then, he remained under regular medical supervision
.In 2023, the Prime Minister underwent surgery to implant a pacemaker, after suffering what doctors described as a “transient heart block”. That episode occurred just a week after he was hospitalized after suffering “a fainting
It should be remembered that he had already undergone surgery for the same condition in 2013.
Israeli media had begun to speculate about the possibility of cancer after the December 2024 operation, but it was only now that Netanyahu himself confirmed the diagnosis and successful treatment.
With this revelation, the longest-serving leader in Israel not only makes his state of health transparent, but also reveals how even personal issues can become strategic variables in the midst of a high-intensity geopolitical conflict.
