Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, for many years, closely guarded the details of his personal health.

Amid that long record of reticence to divulge his medical situation, Netanyahu’s revelation last week that he was recently diagnosed with, and treated for, malignant prostate cancer came as a disturbing surprise.

Israel’s longtime leader, aged 76, belatedly disclosed that during a period of intense security instability, and possibly even during the war with Iran itself, he had suffered from, and possibly been treated for, a malignant tumor.

Along with the concerns for the physical health of the prime minister came questions about the manner in which he informed the public of his illness, the apparently severe delay in informing the public that he was suffering from a serious disease while running the country, and even over the veracity of the actual details that were released.

Questions have been raised in particular about when exactly Netanyahu was first diagnosed, and when and for how long he underwent the radiation treatment he received for his tumor.

And the vague, detail-free answers that have been provided on those issues raise further questions about the prime minister’s own comment that he wanted to delay the release of the details about his illness due to the war with Iran, and whether that assertion matches up with the likely dates when he received his cancer treatment.

More fundamentally, concerns have been raised about how the prime minister seemingly concealed that he was suffering from cancer for around half a year, and about his ability to keep such details from the public, in particular during a period in which the State of Israel has faced one of the most severe threats to its physical security in half a century.

Last Friday, April 24, Netanyahu disclosed on social media that he had recently been diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his prostate and that he had been successfully treated for it.

He did not, however, give any dates as to when he was diagnosed, when he began treatment, or when treatment ended, sufficing to say simply that he had had targeted treatment and claimed that it had been successful.

היום התפרסם הדו״ח הרפואי השנתי שלי.  ביקשתי לעכב את פרסומו בחודשיים כדי שהוא לא יפורסם בשיא המלחמה על מנת שלא לאפשר למשטר הטרור באיראן להפיץ עוד תעמולת כזב נגד ישראל.  אני מבקש לשתף אתכם בשלושה דברים: 1 – ברוך השם, אני בריא. 2 – אני בכושר גופני מצויין. Advertisement if(typeof rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner != "function" || !rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner("#Article_Incontent2")){ window.tude = window.tude || { cmd: [] }; tude.cmd.push(function() { if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("rgbmedia-app") > -1){ tude.setDeviceType("mobile"); } tude.refreshAdsViaDivMappings([ { divId: 'Article_Incontent2', baseDivId: 'Article_Incontent2', } ]); }); } 3 – הייתה לי בעיה… — Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) April 24, 2026

היום התפרסם הדו״ח הרפואי השנתי שלי. 

ביקשתי לעכב את פרסומו בחודשיים כדי שהוא לא יפורסם בשיא המלחמה על מנת שלא לאפשר למשטר הטרור באיראן להפיץ עוד תעמולת כזב נגד ישראל. 

אני מבקש לשתף אתכם בשלושה דברים:

1 – ברוך השם, אני בריא.

2 – אני בכושר גופני מצויין.

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) April 24, 2026

His post was accompanied by the release of an annual health report along with an additional document on his cancer diagnosis and........

© The Times of Israel