Israeli PM Netanyahu to undergo hernia surgery

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will undergo surgery on March 31 for a hernia his doctors discovered, at a time when he is waging a war against Hamas in Gaza and less than a year after he was fitted with a pacemaker.

“On Saturday (May 30) night, during a routine check-up for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a hernia was found,” his office said in a statement, adding that the 74-year-old would be under general anaesthetic during his surgery on March 31.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin will be standing in for Mr Netanyahu during the operation.

Mr Netanyahu said he expects to make a full and quick recovery from surgery.

“I assure you that I will get through this treatment successfully and return to action very quickly,” Mr Netanyahu said at a news conference in Jerusalem.

Mr Netanyahu was

fitted with a pacemaker in July 2023

, while Israel was ensnared in its worst domestic crisis in decades, with widespread protests against his hard-right government’s judicial overhaul plan.

Those protests stopped on Oct 7, when the Palestinian militant group Hamas

launched a shock attack

on southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza. It was Israel’s deadliest single day and the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

Israel then launched an air, sea and ground offensive in Gaza, with the declared aim of ending Hamas’ rule there and dismantling its military capabilities.

More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, and Israel has faced intense and growing international pressure over the death toll and the grave humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Mr Netanyahu’s popularity, already down over the judicial crisis, has plummeted further since the war, with successive opinion polls showing little faith in his leadership and a defeat by more centrist rivals if an election were held.

With around 130 hostages still in Gaza, there have been steady protests against Mr Netanyahu’s government over its failure to get them home.

The government is facing a new crisis over

exemptions of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men

from military service, an issue that is splitting opinion within the Prime Minister’s own Cabinet.

Now on his sixth term, Mr Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving leader. He is also the country’s first sitting premier to be indicted with corruption. His trial is still ongoing, and he denies any wrongdoing. REUTERS