Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will undergo surgery for a hernia following a meeting of the war cabinet, his office announced.
Netanyahu, 74, was slated to be under full anesthesia during the operation, which will take place at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem. An official at the Prime Minister’s Office said Sunday afternoon that the prime minister was feeling well and was following his planned schedule, which included a meeting with the families of female IDF soldiers held hostage in Gaza, as well as the war cabinet meeting.
According to rrports, the hernia was discovered during a routine checkup on Saturday evening. His office did not say where in the body the hernia had been discovered, although they are most common in the abdomen and hip areas.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who also holds the role of deputy prime minister, will fill Netanyahu’s role temporarily while he is under anesthesia.
Last year, Netanyahu underwent surgery to have a pacemaker installed after he suffered 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.
A medical report released in January said Netanyahu was in a “completely normal state of health,” that his pacemaker was working correctly and that there was no evidence of heart arrhythmia or any other problematic conditions.
A petition was submitted to the High Court of Justice earlier this month calling for Netanyahu to be compelled to share a detailed health report, claiming that he has not followed protocols requiring him to reveal his physical and mental health for years.
Despite protocols requiring prime ministers to release an annual health report, Netanyahu did not release one between 2016 and late 2023. He could not be legally forced to share his health information as these protocols have not been enshrined in law.
The petitioners, who include relatives of those killed on October 7 as well as medical professionals and Labor MK Naama Lazimi, argue that with Israel in a serious security crisis, it is paramount for Netanyahu to be transparent about his health and appoint an acting deputy should he be unable to perform his duties.
Mr Netanyahu will be having the operation as thousands of Israelis are expected to rally to show their frustration with his government and urge him to resign.
But speaking at a press conference on Sunday afternoon, Mr Netanyahu said he would be “back very soon” after his surgery and repeated his defiant message that Israel would destroy Hamas.
The Israeli prime minister promised the planned operation in Rafah would go ahead, regardless of international objections, including from Washington, saying that it was “the only way to defeat Hamas”.
Mr Netanyahu added that he was doing everything he could to bring hostages seized by Hamas on 7 October back to Israel, and claimed that the recent Israeli strike on al Shifa hospital had “killed more than 200 terrorists”.
Netanyahu is not a man to cede control readily but tonight, for at least a few hours, he will need to – reluctantly, it’s fair to assume – hand over the running of the country to his deputy Yariv Levin.
Thousands of people are calling for him to step down in a series of demonstrations with a large protest planned in Jerusalem this evening.
As these exhibitions of popular discontent are building in frequency and number, it is likely Mr Netanyahu will keep his convalescence short, returning to the political fray as quickly as possible.
It comes as an Israeli air strike hit a tent camp in a hospital compound in central Gaza, killing two Palestinians and injuring another 15.
The strike hit one of several tents in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where thousands of people have been sheltering for months after fleeing their homes elsewhere in the war-ravaged territory.
Palestinian families who fled from the area, including many who had already been displaced earlier in the war, say they were ordered to march south by Israeli soldiers after days of heavy fighting.
Only a third of Gaza’s hospitals are even partially functioning, even as Israeli strikes kill and wound scores of people every day.
Doctors say they are often forced to treat patients on hospital floors because all the beds are taken, and to operate without anaesthetic and other crucial medical supplies.
An international team of doctors who had recently visited Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where Sunday’s strike occurred, said they were horrified by the war’s gruesome impact on Palestinian children.
The war began when Hamas-led terrorists stormed across the border on October 7 and rampaged across southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and dragging around 250 hostages back to Gaza. More than 100 captives were freed last year in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Israel responded to the assault with one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, one that has driven around 80 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes.
The United Nations and partners have warned that famine could occur in devastated, largely isolated northern Gaza as early as this month.
The ministry’s count does not differentiate between civilians and fighters, but it has said that women and children make up around two-thirds of those killed.
Israel says over one-third of the dead are militants, though it has not provided evidence to support that, and it blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in residential areas.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to broker another ceasefire and hostage release since January. Hamas is demanding that any such agreement leads to an end to the war and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces.
Netanyahu has rejected those demands and says Israel will keep fighting until it has destroyed Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.
But he is under growing pressure to reach a deal from the families of the hostages, some of whom have joined mass demonstrations calling for early elections to replace him.
Ceasefire talks resumed in Cairo on Sunday, but there is little expectation of any breakthrough.
Humanitarian officials say deliveries by sea and air are not enough and that Israel must allow far more aid by road. The top UN court has ordered Israel to open more land crossings and take other measures to address the crisis.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Sunday that at least 32,782 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, including 77 whose bodies were brought to hospitals over the last 24 hours.
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