A mob of protesters in Lebanon “destroyed” a local McDonald’s restaurant, according to a social media post — after McDonald’s locations in Israel announced they were donating thousands of meals to the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli hospitals and residents amid the nation’s expanding war with Gaza.
A post on X, formerly Twitter, featured a video of an unruly crowd outside a McDonald’s in Sidon, Lebanon, home to Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terror group which has voiced support for the attacks by Hamas on Israel that left more than 1,200 dead, including women and children.
“People did not appreciate this PR move by an international corporation and destroyed one of the McDonald’s outlets,” the user captioned the clip, which showed dozens of people waving Palestinian flags were pushing to get into the restaurant.
The extent of damage to the Lebanese burger joint wasn’t immediately clear.
The mob appeared to have missed the fact that McDonald’s locations in Israel are owned and operated by McDonald’s Israel, a local franchisee, as opposed to Chicago-based McDonald’s.
Indeed, McDonald’s franchisees in four Arab states — the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman — announced their support of the Palestinians.
The violent footage emerged after McDonald’s Israel posted on its Instagram story that it “donated and continues to donate tens of thousands of meals to IDF units, the police, hospitals, residents around the Strip and all rescue forces,” according to Business Insider.
“We continue donating thousands of meals daily to our forces across the country. In addition to a 50% discount to soldiers and security forces who come to our branches,” the franchisee added.
McDonald’s Israel said in another post that it opened five restaurants solely for the purpose of providing 4,000 daily meals to locals and the IDF, which consist of an army, navy and air force, per Insider.
It also shared photos of McDonald’s workers preparing meals and packages to be delivered to a military base in Southern Israel, cars loaded with McDonald’s meals and hospital workers receiving the food delivery, Insider reported.
As of Thursday, the Israeli Golden Arches had handed out 12,000 meals to IDF and Israeli residents, Insider saw on McDonald’s Israel’s Instagram page, which has since been made private.
In response, calls for a McDonald’s boycott are spreading throughout the Middle East. “Dear Pakistan, Let’s BOYCOTT McDonald’s. Spread as much as you can,” one user wrote.
Franchisee McDonald’s UAE took to social media to say it was “deeply saddened by the events in the region” and it’s donating 1 million in AED currency towards its “Tarahum for Gaza” campaign.
Similarly, McDonald’s Oman, which is situated on the Arabian Peninsula and borders Saudi Arabia, shared a statement on X notifying its followers that it “stands with Gaza.”
The Oman outpost said that it ” donated $100,000 towards the relief efforts for the people of Gaza,” adding that “McDonald’s Corporation never interferes in politics and always adheres to absolute neutrality and does not adopt any political positions for commercial interests around the world.”
The four Arab McDonald’s financial contributions reportedly totaled upwards of $2 million USD.
In addition, the fast-food chain’s franchisee in Turkey announced a “humanitarian aid” of $1 million “to the people of Gaza who are victims of war, especially women, children and the elderly.”
McDonald’s Kuwait representatives shared that it “stands with our brothers and sisters in Palestine, especially in Gaza” in a statement that also announced a $250,000 donation to the Kuwait Red Crescent Society to help with relief efforts in Gaza.
Representatives for McDonald’s Corp. did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
