Netanyahu Leaves Hospital After Treatment for Dehydration

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was discharged from the Sheba Medical Center where he was treated since Saturday following dizziness caused by a day in the sun during an intense heat wave, his office said.

(Bloomberg) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was discharged from the Sheba Medical Center where he was treated since Saturday following dizziness caused by a day in the sun during an intense heat wave, his office said.

The hospital diagnosed Netanyahu with dehydration and said he was in “excellent condition,” that his heart was “completely normal” and “at no point was any heart arrhythmia found.” However, “in order to continue routine monitoring, we decided to use a subcutaneous Holter,” the statement said. 

The Cabinet meeting that convenes weekly on Sunday mornings was postponed for a day to await Netanyahu’s return. 

Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving leader and has been elected to a total of five terms, the first in 1996. His current far-right government is pushing an initiative to diminish the power of the judiciary, a plan that’s drawn hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets nationwide in recent months. 

Late on Saturday, the Ynet news site posted a photo of the prime minister with his wife on a boat cruise on the Sea of Galilee in northeast Israel. 

“Yesterday, I spent time with my wife in the Sea of ​​Galilee in the sun, without water, without a hat — not a good idea,” Netanyahu, 73, said in a video statement released earlier from the hospital. 

Israel joined much of Europe over the weekend in suffering a scorching heat wave. The prime minister in his video statement urged Israelis to “spend less time in the sun, drink more water.”

He also thanked the medical team that examined him and those who sent him get well wishes.

Netanyahu was taken to a Jerusalem hospital in October, just before the most recent election, after feeling chest pains while at a synagogue.   

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