Israel's Netanyahu in hospital, likely suffering from dehydration

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was admitted to hospital on Saturday with dizziness from apparent dehydration but was in good condition, his office said, and there were no indications of a potential handover of power.

By Saturday evening, Energy Minister Israel Katz, a member of Netanyahu's Likud party, told Israel's Channel 13 TV: "He's coming back to work. This event is behind us." He did not say when the prime minister would resume work.

With his potential absence raising questions as the country deals with a crisis over a planned judicial overhaul as well as simmering conflicts with the Palestinians and Iran, Netanyahu also moved to calm worries by issuing a brief video message.

"Thank God, I feel really well," Netanyahu, 73, said in the clip, which was aired by Israeli TV and which he described as having been recorded at the hospital that received him.

"I ask you all, spend less time in the sun less, drink more water, and may we all have a good new week," he added, smiling and apparently wearing a dark blazer over a dress shirt.

Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader, said he had been on holiday at the Sea of Galilee on Friday during a heatwave. Temperatures there reached 42 Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit) on Saturday.

The prime minister was taken to Sheba Hospital in the town of Tel Hashomer, close to his private residence in coastal Caesarea. Israeli media said he was fully conscious en route to the hospital and that he walked into the emergency room.

Channel 12 TV said he had suffered chest pain but there was no confirmation of that. He was not undergoing sedation and no procedures were underway to declare him incapacitated, it added.

Netanyahu's office said he was admitted on his physician's recommendation after complaining of "light dizziness".

"Initial tests came back normal, without findings. The preliminary diagnosis is dehydration," it said, adding further routine tests were underway. An earlier statement said his condition was fine.

It was not immediately clear who might replace Netanyahu in the event of an emergency succession.

CONTROVERSIAL FIGURE

When then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was felled by a stroke in 2006, he was succeeded by his deputy, Ehud Olmert. Justice Minister Yariv Levin has stood in for Netanyahu during foreign trips.

First elected to top office in 1996 at the head of the conservative Likud party, Netanyahu has been both dynamic and polarising. He spearheaded a free-market revolution in Israel while showing distrust of internationally-backed peacemaking with the Palestinians and negotiations to cap Iran's nuclear programme.

He is in the grip of a domestic furore over his plan to overhaul the judiciary, which has set off unprecedented protests by Israelis worried for the future independence of the courts.

Netanyahu himself is on trial after being indicted in three corruption cases. He denies any wrongdoing and has cast the trial as a politicised witch-hunt.

With hundreds of military reservists threatening not to heed call-up orders in protest at the government reforms, Israel's Channel 13 on Wednesday aired audio of Netanyahu shouting in a cabinet session that such insubordination was "inconceivable".

Israeli TV showed one of Netanyahu's son, Avner, leaving the hospital on Saturday with a female companion. Both were smiling.

"I wish the prime minister a full recovery and good health," tweeted Yair Lapid, the centrist leader of the opposition.

In early October, Netanyahu was taken ill during the Jewish fast of Yom Kippur and was also briefly hospitalised.

(Writing by Dan Williams;Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Frances Kerry)