The condition of former Mossad chief Meir Dagan is improving after his liver transplant in Belarus, Channel 2 News reported on Wednesday.
The report said that despite the improvement, the 67-year-old Dagan is still being kept on a respirator and sedated, and is in isolation for fear of infection.
Channel 2 also noted that Dagan is being kept under heavy security and that the next few days are critical to the success of the transplant.
Dagan’s illness had been kept a secret in Israel, but Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko revealed information about the operation during a press conference on Tuesday.
Lukashenko said that Belarus had agreed to do the operation, after hospitals in the U.S., Germany, and Sweden refused to allow Dagan into their countries. “No one wanted to conduct this operation on a former head of the Mossad,” Lukashenko said at the press conference.
Israeli officials said on Wednesday that publicizing Dagan’s operation was "not good" for Israel, and said that Lukashenko likely wanted to make some headlines around the world in revealing the information.
The Channel 2 report noted that Dagan’s close associates had been dealing with the transplant issue for many months, but once his condition worsened many high-ranking Israeli officials joined the cause to help Dagan. These include Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and others.
Dagan first flew to Atlanta and waited for an opportunity to have the surgery there, but the waiting time was too long. The possibility of having the surgery in India was then raised, but India refused to operate on Dagan, saying he is persona non grata because he served as head of the Mossad.