The Ramle Magistrate’s Court on Thursday ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to submit his medical records to the court, including details of the prostate cancer he was recently treated for, as well as when it was first diagnosed.
Judge Menachem Mizrahi issued the order in the context of a libel lawsuit Netanyahu filed against journalists Uri Misgav and Ben Caspit, and prominent Netanyahu critic Gonen Ben Yitzhak, for asserting publicly in 2024 that the prime minister had a serious illness.
The defendants “spread false and malicious information against the prime minister,” the suit claimed, saying that claims that Netanyahu was sick with pancreatic cancer or other serious illnesses were “lies and falsehoods.”
“The prime minister is a perfectly healthy person for his age,” the suit added.
This week, Misgav filed a request to the court to summon the head of Netanyahu’s medical staff, Dr. Tzvi Berkovitz, and the head of the medical team who treated his prostate cancer, Prof. Aron Popovtzer, to give evidence in the libel case, after Netanyahu disclosed last month for the first time that he had been diagnosed with and treated for prostate cancer.
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Mizrahi ruled that Netanyahu must file up-to-date medical records with the court. The file will be sealed and will not be made publicly available.
Judge Menachem Mizrahi attends a farewell ceremony for outgoing supreme court justice Yosef Elron at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem. September 18, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The judge ordered Berkovitz to write a signed letter to be submitted alongside the medical file stating that the file presents an up-to-date account of Netanyahu’s health and medical situation, and includes details on “the time when the plaintiff’s prostate cancer was discovered.”
Netanyahu must file the medical records by May 13.
Mizrahi added that once Netanyahu himself has testified in the case, he will decide whether to summon Berkovitz and Popovtzer to give evidence in court.
Last month, Netanyahu, 76, revealed in a lengthy social media post that he recently underwent successful radiation treatment at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital for a malignant tumor in his prostate, but had held off on informing the public, claiming Iran would have used the information to spread propaganda against Israel in the middle of the recent war.
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.
3 – הייתה לי בעיה…
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) April 24, 2026
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 that it had been successful. Neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor Hadassah responded to requests from The Times of Israel for comment as to when Netanyahu was diagnosed with cancer (according to a report by the Kan public broadcaster, he was originally diagnosed in October 2025), when he began radiotherapy treatment, how many treatments he had, and when the treatments ended.
His announcement was accompanied by the release of his annual health report along with an additional document on his cancer diagnosis and treatment, though the report consisted of five vague bullet points covering half a page, and did not even specify what year it covered. Neither document bore a hospital logo or any indication that they were formal medical statements.
Prof. Aron Popovtzer, Director of the Sharett Oncology Institute at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, delivers a statement on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s treatment of prostate cancer, April 24, 2026. (Screenshot)
Over a year earlier, Netanyahu underwent surgery to remove his prostate after doctors discovered an infection in his urinary tract resulting from a benign enlargement of the prostate. The operation was successful, and the premier then spent several days recovering in an underground, fortified ward, before he was discharged and returned to work.
In March 2024, the premier was put under full anesthesia to undergo surgery for a hernia. 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. The surgery came a week after he was hospitalized for what he said at the time was dehydration.
The incident led to considerable speculation among many in Israel as to the health of the prime minister and to what degree details had been hidden from the public.
Until last month’s vague document, the last time Netanyahu published an annual health report was in December 2023. Before that, the last such document he published was for 2016, according to the Movement for Freedom of Information. A cabinet resolution passed in 2007 requires that the prime minister issue an annual health report, which must be written by the head of the premier’s medical team.
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