Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was discharged from Sheba Medical Center on Sunday after spending the night in hospital due to dehydration. The hospital said doctors conducted a series of tests and found nothing abnormal, although they implanted a heart monitor so his health could be followed up.
“Our diagnosis at the end of all tests performed, including laboratory tests, is that the reason for the hospitalization was dehydration,” the hospital said in a statement.
The medical center said the prime minister’s heart was “completely normal” and that Netanyahu underwent “a series of comprehensive and routine checks, carried out while fully conscious, including an electrical heart scan, all of which were found to be completely normal.”
The statement said that “no cardiac arrhythmias were detected at any time” and that doctors “opted to use a subcutaneous Holter exam, as is customary.”
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The hospital said the implantation of the medical device would “allow the Prime Minister’s close medical team to continue regular monitoring”.
The 73-year-old prime minister has been lying at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan since Saturday afternoon, reportedly in the cardiology department.
Police gather outside the emergency entrance of Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hospitalized (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
The hospital’s announcement came amid mounting criticism that information on Netanyahu’s health had only been released by the hospital in coordination with the prime minister’s office, or by the office itself.
Public broadcaster Kan reported that unnamed officials in the political and medical systems were dissatisfied with the lack of transparency.
The prime minister was hospitalized on Saturday. A joint statement from his office and Sheba Medical Center said at the time that Netanyahu had complained of dizziness after spending several hours in the sun on Friday amid an intense heatwave across the country.
Hours later, a statement from the prime minister’s office said Netanyahu would stay overnight for medical observation on the recommendation of his doctors.
Netanyahu later said in a video statement from Sheba Medical Center, where he underwent “another routine check-up” after being admitted to the emergency room, that he felt “very well.”
Netanyahu said he was dehydrated during Friday’s trip to the Sea of Galilee, where he was “without a hat and without water.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) and his wife Sara during a holiday by the Sea of Galilee on July 14, 2023. (Courtesy; Used under Article 27a of the Copyright Act)
Netanyahu was taken to the hospital in a convoy on Saturday from his home in Caesarea, where he was spending the weekend. He was said to be fully conscious and able to walk unaided.
His wife Sara and son Avner were with him in the hospital.
Haaretz and Walla news sites reported that Netanyahu had passed out at home. However, this was not addressed in the Prime Minister’s video, nor in Sheba’s formal statement. An uncredited Channel 12 news report on Saturday said Netanyahu complained of chest pains before being taken to hospital.
President Isaac Herzog, opposition leader Yair Lapid and other politicians wished Netanyahu good health and a speedy recovery.
Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, tweeted: “Prime Minister Netanyahu is a fighter. Please pray with me for him and for Israel.”
The Prime Minister thanked McCarthy for his words and prayers, and for the friendship between the two nations.
“I’m fine and ready to give it my all to further strengthen the unbreakable bond between our two nations. I look forward to seeing you again soon,” Netanyahu tweeted.
In this handout photo, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) meets with Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on May 1, 2023. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
Former US Vice President Mike Pence also shared his well wishes, tweeting: “I pray for a speedy recovery of my friend and great friend of America, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” God bless Netanyahu.”
Netanyahu has no formal deputy. In the past, Netanyahu has appointed a fellow minister to temporarily deputize for trips abroad or brief scheduled medical procedures.
When Netanyahu underwent a routine colonoscopy in January, Shas leader Aryeh Deri stepped in for him. Netanyahu was later this month forced by the Supreme Court to remove Deri from his ministerial posts after his appointment was found “unreasonable”, citing a judicial oversight law that the government now wants to cut.
Netanyahu heads an unprecedentedly tough Israeli coalition government that has sparked internal opposition to its judicial reform plans for more than six months. A law blocking judicial scrutiny of the “reasonableness” of politicians’ decisions — the first bill of reforms tabled since Netanyahu temporarily frozen the legislative initiative in late March — is due to go through the committee stage next week and come into force on or around March 23. July. The Knesset will suspend its summer recess at the end of the month.
The proposed reform has plunged his relations with the US into a crisis, as President Joe Biden refused to invite him to the White House and publicly expressed his concerns about the fate of Israeli democracy.
Netanyahu is also in the middle of a protracted corruption trial, facing three counts of fraud and breach of trust and bribery. He denies all allegations and says he was the victim of a political witch hunt.
In October, Netanyahu was hospitalized at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center after feeling unwell during services at the Yom Kippur Synagogue. He was released the next morning after undergoing physical examinations and staying overnight for observation.