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Israel PM Warns Unilever of ‘Severe Consequences’ from Ben & Jerry’s Decision

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. (AFP)
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. (AFP)
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Israel PM Warns Unilever of ‘Severe Consequences’ from Ben & Jerry’s Decision

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. (AFP)
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. (AFP)

Israel warned consumer goods giant Unilever Plc on Tuesday of “severe consequences” from a decision by subsidiary Ben & Jerry’s to stop selling ice cream in Israeli-occupied territories, and urged US states to invoke anti-boycott laws.

The Ben & Jerry’s announcement on Monday followed pro-Palestinian pressure on the South Burlington, Vermont-based company over its business in Israel and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, handled through a licensee partner since 1987.

Ben & Jerry’s said it would not renew the license when it expires at the end of next year. It said it would stay in Israel under a different arrangement, without sales in the West Bank, among areas where Palestinians seek statehood.

Most world powers deem Israel’s settlements illegal. It disputes this, citing historical and security links to the land, and has moved to penalize anti-settlement measures under Israeli law while securing similar legal protection in some US states.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office said he spoke with Unilever CEO Alan Jope about the “glaring anti-Israel measure” by the ice cream maker.

“From Israel’s standpoint, this action has severe consequences, legal and otherwise, and it will move aggressively against any boycott measure targeting civilians,” Bennett told Jope, according to the statement from his office.

Britain’s Unilever did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, said he had raised the Ben & Jerry’s decision in a letter sent to 35 US governors whose states legislated against boycotting Israel.

“Rapid and determined action must be taken to counter such discriminatory and antisemitic actions,” read the letter, tweeted by the envoy, which likened the case to Airbnb’s 2018 announcement that it would delist settlement rental properties.

Airbnb reversed that decision in 2019 following legal challenges in the United States, but said it would donate profits from bookings in the settlements to humanitarian causes.

Palestinians welcomed the Ben & Jerry’s announcement. They want the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip for a future state. Israel deems all of Jerusalem its capital – a status not recognized internationally.

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Arab World

Israeli Forces Kills over 20 People Seeking Food in Gaza, Witnesses and Health Officials Say

Palestinians return with bags, boxes and wooden pallets from a food distribution point run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) group, near the Netsarim corridor in the central Gaza Strip on August 3, 2025. (AFP)
Palestinians return with bags, boxes and wooden pallets from a food distribution point run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) group, near the Netsarim corridor in the central Gaza Strip on August 3, 2025. (AFP)
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Israeli Forces Kills over 20 People Seeking Food in Gaza, Witnesses and Health Officials Say

Palestinians return with bags, boxes and wooden pallets from a food distribution point run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) group, near the Netsarim corridor in the central Gaza Strip on August 3, 2025. (AFP)
Palestinians return with bags, boxes and wooden pallets from a food distribution point run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) group, near the Netsarim corridor in the central Gaza Strip on August 3, 2025. (AFP)

Israeli forces killed at least 23 Palestinians seeking food on Sunday in the Gaza Strip, according to hospital officials and witnesses, who described facing gunfire as hungry crowds surged around aid sites as the malnutrition-related death toll surged.

Desperation has gripped the Palestinian territory of more than 2 million, which experts have warned is at risk of famine because of Israel’s blockade and nearly two-year offensive.

Yousef Abed, among the crowds en route to a distribution point, described coming under what he called indiscriminate fire, looking around and seeing at least three people bleeding on the ground.

“I couldn’t stop and help them because of the bullets,” he said.

Southern Gaza’s Nasser Hospital said they had received bodies from near multiple distribution sites, including eight from Teina, about three kilometers (1.8 miles) away from a distribution site in Khan Younis, which is operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private US and Israeli-backed contractor that took over aid distribution more than two months ago.

The hospital also received one body from Shakoush, an area hundreds of meters (yards) north of a different GHF site in Rafah. Another nine were also killed by troops near the Morag corridor, who were awaiting trucks entering Gaza through an Israeli border crossing, it said.

Three Palestinian eyewitnesses, seeking food in Teina and Morag, told The Associated Press the shootings occurred on the route to the distribution points, which are in military zones secured by Israeli forces. They said they saw soldiers open fire on hungry crowds advancing toward the troops.

Further north in central Gaza, hospital officials described a similar episode, with Israeli troops opening fire Sunday morning toward crowds of Palestinians trying to GHF’s fourth and northernmost distribution point.

“Troops were trying to prevent people from advancing. They opened fire and we fled. Some people were shot,” said Hamza Matter, one of the aid seekers.

At least five people were killed and 27 wounded at GHF’s site near Netzarim corridor, Awda Hospital said.

Eyewitnesses seeking food in the strip have reported similar gunfire attacks in recent days near aid distribution sites, leaving dozens of Palestinians dead.

The United Nations reported 859 people have been killed near GHF sites from May 27 to July 31 and that hundreds more have been slain along the routes of UN-led food convoys.

The GHF launched in May as Israel sought an alternative to the UN-run system, which had safely delivered aid for much of the war but was accused by Israel of allowing Hamas, which guarded convoys early in the war, to siphon supplies.

Israel has not offered evidence of widespread theft. The UN has denied it.

GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding. Israel’s military has said it only fires warning shots as well. Both claimed the death tolls have been exaggerated

Neither Israel’s military nor GHF immediately responded to questions about Sunday's reported fatalities.

Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry also said six more Palestinian adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours. This brings the death toll among Palestinian adults to 82 in the past five weeks since the ministry started counting deaths among adults in late June, it said.

Ninety-three children have also died of causes related to malnutrition since the war in Gaza started in 2023, the ministry said.

The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, and abducted another 251. They are still holding 50 captives, around 20 believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals. Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 60,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, is staffed by medical professionals. The United Nations and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable count of casualties. Israel has disputed its figures, but hasn’t provided its own account of casualties.