Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushed to a hospital on Saturday and admitted to the emergency department.
Initial tests showed that Mr. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, was suffering from apparent dehydration after spending Friday in the heat at the coast near the Sea of Galilee in Israel’s north, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
The Sea of Galilee is the country’s largest freshwater lake and a popular vacation area. Mr. Netanyahu, in a video from the hospital, said he had taken a holiday there in temperatures that hit 38 Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit).
“Thank God, I feel really well,” he said.
He noted that he wasn’t wearing a hat and didn’t have water, commenting that it was “not a good idea.”
“I ask you all, spend less time in the sun, drink more water, and may we all have a good new week.”
Israel is in the midst of a summer heat wave, with temperatures in the mid-30s Celsius (mid-90s Fahrenheit). The Israel Meterological Service said the heat wave is expected to continue until the middle of next week.
The medical tests were taken at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, which is close to Mr. Netanyahu’s private residence.
Netanyahu’s office said he was admitted on his physician’s recommendation after complaining of “light dizziness.”
Israel’s Channel 12 TV said, quoting the premier’s doctor, that he was fully conscious en route to Sheba and that he walked into the emergency room.
Reports said they saw no grounds or need for a caretaker to step in. Mr. Netanyahu was not undergoing sedation and no procedures were under way to declare him incapacitated, Channel 12 said.
Mr. Netanyahu is now in “good condition” and that doctors have ordered further tests, the prime minister’s office said on Saturday. He will stay overnight at the hospital.
His office said in a later update that he would be discharged on Sunday after no irregularities were found in additional medical tests he underwent for suspected dehydration.
Israel’s weekly cabinet meeting, usually held on Sunday, has been postponed to Monday.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid wished Mr. Netanyahu a full “recovery and good health.”
Mr. Netanyahu beat Mr. Lapid in the 2022 election, and is now the chair of the conservative Likud party. He was first elected to top office in 1996.
In Washington, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said: “We wish him a speedy recovery.”
Mr. Netanyahu was previously briefly hospitalized in October 2022 during the Jewish fast of Yom Kippur after feeling pain in his chest in the weeks leading up to the election. But he was jogging by the next morning.
