Israel’s Netanyahu says he will be fitted with pacemaker overnight

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be fitted with a pacemaker overnight between Saturday and Sunday, he said in a video statement released by his office.

“A week ago I was fitted with a monitoring device. That device beeped this evening and said I must receive a pacemaker and that I must do this already tonight,” Netanyahu said in the video. “I feel great, but I need to listen to my doctors.”

Netanyahu, 73, was standing in the video and smiling. He said his doctors assured him he would be discharged from the hospital “tomorrow afternoon.”

His office said he would undergo the procedure at Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer. Netanyahu was hospitalized there overnight on July 15 for what his office said was dehydration that occurred after he had been on holiday at the Sea of Galilee without properly protecting himself from a heatwave.

The hospital on July 16 confirmed its original diagnosis of dehydration and said additional tests involving a subcutaneous holter monitor had found Netanyahu to be “in complete cardiac health,” though the device would allow his medical team to continue monitoring his health.