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Britain, Australia, Canada and Portugal on Sunday recognised a Palestinian state in a coordinated, historic shift in decades of Western foreign policy, triggering swift anger from Israel.Other countries, including France, are due to follow Monday at the annual UN General Assembly opening in New York.Israel has come under huge international pressure over its war against Hamas in Gaza, which has sparked a dire humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the statehood moves, later vowing to expand Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Netanyahu spoke after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain was formally recognising the State of Palestine "to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two-state solution".The UK and Canada became the first members of the Group of Seven advanced economies to take the step, with Australia following suit.Portugal said Sunday it recognises a Palestinian state, making it the latest Western nation to make the symbolic move as the war in Gaza shows no sign of ending."Recognizing the State of Palestine is therefore the fulfilment of a fundamental, consistent, and widely agreed policy," Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel told reporters in New York."Portugal advocates the two-state solution as the only path to a just and lasting peace, one that promotes coexistence and peaceful relations between Israel and Palestine," he added.Three-quarters of UN members now recognise Palestinian statehood, with at least 144 of the 193 member countries having taken the step.Canada "offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future", Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on X.Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the move "recognises the legitimate and long held aspirations of the people of Palestine to a state of their own".Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas hailed the recognitions as "an important and necessary step toward achieving a just and lasting peace".French President Emmanuel Macron insisted in an interview with a US television network that releasing the hostages captured in 2023 would be "a requirement very clearly before opening, for instance, an embassy in Palestine".It is a watershed moment for Palestinians and their ambitions for statehood, with the most powerful Western nations having long argued it should only come as part of a negotiated peace deal with Israel.Although a largely symbolic move, it puts those countries at odds with the US and Israel.US President Donald Trump said last week after talks with Starmer during a state visit to the UK that "one of our few disagreements" was over Palestinian statehood.A growing number of longtime Israeli allies have shifted their long-held positions as Israel has intensified its Gaza offensive.The Gaza Strip has suffered vast destruction, with a growing international outcry over the besieged coastal territory's spiralling death toll and a UN-declared famine.The UK government has come under increasing public pressure to act, with thousands of people rallying every month on the streets. A poll released by YouGov on Friday showed two-thirds of British people aged 18-25 supported Palestinian statehood.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced the forcible displacement of 1.9 mn people in the Gaza Strip.In a statement, the UN agency said that "For 2 years too long, UNRWA has been calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, the scale of suffering and destruction is unimaginable." It added, "We call again for a ceasefire now."Last Friday, the UNRWA reported that the cost of displacement from Gaza City in the north of the Strip to the south is estimated at $3,180 per family. The agency also pointed to severe overcrowding in areas designated for the tents of Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military offensive.This comes amid the massive humanitarian crisis facing the people of the besieged Gaza Strip, which has been the target of a war of extermination for nearly two years, and amid the intensification of Israeli occupation operations in Gaza City in recent days.Medical sources in the Gaza Strip announced Sunday that five deaths were recorded in the Strip due to famine and malnutrition over the past 24 hours.These sources reported that the total number of deaths from famine and malnutrition has risen to 447, including 147 children.The death toll from the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, has risen to 65,283 martyrs.In a statement Sunday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said that hospitals in the Strip received, over the past 24 hours, the bodies of 75 martyrs (four of whom were recovered from under the rubble of destroyed buildings) and 304 wounded.

Israel's military kept up its assault on Gaza City and the wider Gaza Strip Saturday, in attacks that killed at least 60 Palestinians, according to Gazan health authorities.The assault came as 10 countries, including Australia, Belgium, Britain and Canada, are scheduled to formally recognise an independent Palestinian state on Monday, ahead of the annual leaders' gathering at the UN General Assembly.Israel's intensified military demolition campaign targeting high-rise buildings in Gaza City began this week alongside a ground assault.Its forces, which control Gaza City's eastern suburbs, have been pounding the Sheikh Radwan and Tel Al-Hawa areas from where they would be positioned to advance on central and western parts of the city.Most of Gaza City's population is sheltering in those parts.The military estimates it has demolished up to 20 Gaza City tower blocks over the past two weeks. It also believes, according to Israeli media, that more than 500,000 people have left the city since the start of September.The resistance group Hamas, which controls Gaza, disputes this figure, saying just under 300,000 have left and around 900,000 remain, including Israeli hostages.On messaging site Telegram, Hamas' military wing earlier released a montage-type image of Israeli hostages, warning that their lives were at risk due to Israel's military operation in Gaza City.Hamas also estimates that since August 11, Israel's military has destroyed or damaged more than 1,800 residential buildings in Gaza City, and destroyed more than 13,000 tents housing displaced families.In almost two years of fighting, Israel's offensive has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, according to Gazan health authorities, spread famine, demolished most structures and displaced most of the population, in many cases multiple times.

The director of Al Shifa hospital was on duty Saturday marshalling the facility's response to Israel's assault on Gaza City when two victims killed in a strike were delivered to the ward: his brother and his sister-in-law."I was shocked and devastated to see the bodies of my brother and his wife," said Mohammed Abu Salmiya, who was working in the emergency department of the territory's main hospital at the time."Anything is possible now, as you receive your dearest ones as martyrs or wounded," he told AFP. "The occupation's crimes continue, and the number of martyrs keeps rising."As Israel presses its new offensive to capture the territory's largest urban centre -- despite widespread fears for the safety of both its residents and the hostages -- Salmiya was not the only one dealing with loss.An AFP journalist saw ambulances with sirens blaring pull into the hospital compound early Saturday, bringing more bodies of people killed by Israel's bombardment of Gaza City.Medics unloaded four bodies wrapped in white shrouds and laid them beneath a tree, as another ambulance arrived carrying the injured, including a boy.Gaza City has been the focus of Israel's blistering assault in recent weeks, according to the territory's civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority.Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled the city since Israel launched its offensive, but many remain trapped, too exhausted or impoverished to leave."Death is more merciful," said 38-year-old Mohammed Nassar of Gaza City's Tal al-Hawa area, watching a steady stream of neighbours leave the area.Families could be seen leaving with their belongings piled on trucks, cars, donkey carts and their own shoulders.Nassar, tired and caring for three daughters, said he lacked both the strength and the money to evacuate, leaving him trapped in Gaza City."As for me, my wife and my three daughters, we will wait until the last moment," he said.The civil defence agency reported that at least 20 people had been killed Saturday in strikes on Gaza City.The Israeli military did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment on the overall toll or reports of the deaths of Al Shifa director Salmiya's relatives."The occupation wants to forcibly displace everyone so it can destroy Gaza City and turn it into another Beit Hanoun or Rafah -- unlivable for the next 100 years," Nassar said, referring to other parts of Gaza left in ruins by nearly two years of war.Israel has pummelled Gaza City with air strikes and tank fire in its bid to seize what it describes as one of Hamas's last strongholds.The United Nations and foreign powers, meanwhile, have urged it to abandon its plans over fears the offensive could worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in the city, where the UN recently declared a famine.The military launched its ground assault on the city Tuesday and has told residents to head south, but many Palestinians say the journey is prohibitively expensive and they do not know where to go.Many who fled say it took them more than 12 hours to reach the southern areas designated by the military.Evacuation costs have also soared, according to those who left, with truck owners charging as much as $1,500 to $2,000 for the roughly 30-kilometre journey.The civil defence agency said Friday that 450,000 Palestinians had fled Gaza City.The military, which has warned Gazans it will use "unprecedented force" in the city, put the number at approximately 480,000.The United Nations estimated at the end of August that about one million people were living in Gaza City and its surroundings.The military has urged Palestinians to relocate to a "humanitarian area" in Al-Mawasi on the coast, where it says aid, medical care and humanitarian infrastructure will be provided.Israel first declared the area a safe zone early in the war, but has carried out repeated strikes on it since then, saying it is targeting Hamas.Raeda al-Amareen said she was awakened before dawn by the sound of explosions."We want to evacuate but we have no money," she told AFP."We don't even have 10 shekels to buy bread. What are we supposed to do? We'll stay -- either we die or someone finds a solution for us."

From the music, film to publishing industries, growing numbers of Western artists are calling for a cultural boycott of Israel over the Gaza war, hoping to emulate the success of the apartheid-era blockade of South Africa.With most Western governments resistant to major economic sanctions, musicians, celebrities and writers are hoping to build public pressure for more action."There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that, globally, we're at a tipping point," British actor Khalid Abdalla ("The Kite Runner", "The Crown") told AFP after signing a petition calling for a boycott of some Israeli cinema bodies.The open letter from Film Workers for Palestine has gathered thousands of signatories, including Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix, who have pledged to cut ties with any Israeli institutions "implicated in genocide"."The avalanche is happening now, and it's across spheres. It's not just in the film worker sphere," Abdalla added during an interview on Friday.At this week's Emmy Awards, winner after winner, from Javier Bardem to "Hacks" actor Hannah Einbinder, spoke about Gaza, echoing similar statements at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month.On Thursday, British trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack announced they were joining a music collective called "No Music for Genocide" that will see artists try to block the streaming of their songs in Israel.Elsewhere, Israel faces being boycotted at the Eurovision song contest, authors have signed open letters, while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is leading a push to exclude the country from sports events.Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov announced last week at a concert in Britain that he would no longer perform in his home country."I think we are seeing a situation which is comparable to the boycott movement against apartheid South Africa," Hakan Thorn, a Swedish academic at the University of Gothenburg who wrote a book on the South Africa boycott movement."There was definitely a shift in the spring of this year when the world saw the images of the famine in Gaza," added the sociologist.The international boycott of South Africa's white supremacist government began in earnest in the early 1960s after a massacre of black protesters by police in the Sharpeville township.It culminated with artists and sports teams refusing to play there, with boycott busters such as Queen or Frank Sinatra facing widespread public criticism."The history of the Holocaust and criticism of the pro-Palestinian movement for being antisemitic has been a serious obstacle to a broader mobilisation against what Israel is doing right now," explained Thorn.A campaign to boycott Israel, known as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, began 20 years ago over the country's occupation of Palestinian territory.Although the anti-apartheid movement is referenced by today's campaigners against the Gaza war, history provides some sobering lessons for them.After the start of the South Africa boycott movement, it took 30 years before the regime fell, exposing the limits of international pressure campaigns."By the early 1970s, it's true to say that boycott was the defining principle of a self-identified global anti-apartheid movement, but the movement on its own was not enough," Feldman, who wrote a book about boycotts, added.The real pain was caused by the gradual asphyxiation of the South African economy as companies and banks withdrew under pressure, while the end of the Cold War sharply increased the country's isolation.Inside Israel, many artists worry about the consequences of the boycott movement.Acclaimed Israeli screenwriter Hagai Levi ("Scenes from a Marriage", "The Affair") told AFP earlier this month that "90 percent of people in the artistic community" were against the war."They're struggling, and boycotting them is actually weakening them."

Gaza's civil defence agency said Friday that 450,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza City since Israel began its offensive to seize the territory's largest urban centre. "The number of citizens displaced from Gaza to the south has reached 450,000 people since the start of the military operation on Gaza City in August," said Mohamed al-Mughayir, an official of the rescue force. The Israeli military warned Friday it would operate with "unprecedented force" in Gaza City, telling residents to flee as it presses its ground offensive. Israel has pummelled Gaza City with air strikes and tank fire in its bid to seize it, nearly two years into the war that has devastated the Palestinian territory and left Gaza City gripped by a UN-declared famine. The assault comes ahead of a planned move by several Western governments, including Britain and France, to recognise a Palestinian state at a UN summit next week. The military launched its ground assault on Tuesday and has for days been telling residents to head south, but many Palestinians say the journey is prohibitively expensive and they do not know where to go. "For several days, we've been trying to evacuate to the south, but we haven't been able to find any means of transport," Khaled al-Majdalawi, a displaced Palestinian in western Gaza City told AFP, describing "intense and continuous" shelling. The UN estimated at the end of August that about 1mn people were living in Gaza City and its surroundings. The Israeli military has urged Palestinians to head to a "humanitarian area" in Al-Mawasi on the coast. Israel first declared the area a safe zone early in the war, but has carried out repeated strikes on it since then. Nivin Ahmed, 50, fled south from Gaza City to the central city of Deir el-Balah on Thursday, walking with seven family members. "We walked more than 15km (9 miles), we were crawling from exhaustion," she told AFP. "My youngest son cried from fatigue. We took turns dragging a small cart with some of our belongings." Mona Abdel Karim, 36, said she had been unable to secure transport south and had been sleeping on Al-Rashid road for two nights with her family waiting for a driver. "I feel like I'm about to explode. We can't walk on foot — my husband's parents are elderly and sick, and the children are too weak to walk," she said. Israeli fire killed at least 33 people across the territoryFriday, 18 of them in Gaza City, according to a tally of figures given by Gaza hospitals contacted by AFP. The US-backed offensive on Gaza City came as a UN probe accused Israel of committing "genocide" in the Gaza Strip, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials had incited the crime.

British trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack have joined other bands and musicians in seeking to block their tracks being streamed in Israel as part of a cultural boycott campaign over the war in Gaza.The Bristol natives said they had joined "No Music for Genocide", a new collective of musicians modelled on the "Film Workers for Palestine" group.Massive Attack, who have nearly eight million monthly listeners on Spotify, wrote on Instagram on Thursday that they had asked their label, Universal, that "our music be removed from all... streaming services in the territory of Israel".A website for "No Music for Genocide" says it brings together more than 400 artists and labels that "have geo-blocked and removed their music" from Israel in protest at the country's Gaza campaign.On its website, it offers advice to artists on how to geo-block their songs to make them unavailable on streaming platforms in Israel.Massive Attack also announced that they had asked Universal to remove all of their songs from Spotify over investments in a European defence start-up by the CEO of the Swedish streaming platform.Daniel Ek, Spotify's co-founder and CEO, also runs a private equity company that led a consortium of investors which injected 600 million euros ($705 million) in European military artificial intelligence and drone maker Helsing in June.Ek is also chairman of Helsing, which says on its website that its mission is "to protect our democratic values and open societies".Massive Attack, who are long-time anti-war campaigners, criticised the links between Spotify and Helsing, saying that "the hard-earned money of fans and the creative endeavours of musicians funds lethal, dystopian technologies".Spotify declined to comment when contacted by AFP, but a spokesperson told the Guardian newspaper that Spotify and Helsing were "totally separate companies" and Helsing was "not involved in Gaza"."Our technology is deployed to European countries for deterrence and for defence against the Russian aggression in Ukraine only," said a statement from Helsing on its website.Like many other campaigners, Massive Attack cited the cultural boycott of apartheid-era South Africa as inspiration for their actions against Israel."Complicity with that state was considered unacceptable," the group said.After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many music industry companies withdrew or announced measures against Russia.Spotify closed its Moscow office and removed some sanctioned pro-war artists from the platform.Major record labels such as Sony, Universal and Warner all suspended their operations there and called for an end to the violence.Massive Attack took part in a major concert in London on Wednesday evening called "Together for Palestine" featuring top British artists including indie band Bastille, Brian Eno and DJ Jamie xx.With most Western governments resistant to major economic sanctions on Israel over the Gaza war, increasing numbers of musicians, actors and writers are speaking out in the hope of building public pressure for more action.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned on Thursday of the danger of provocative Israeli calls to treat the Gaza Strip as real estate for sale, division, or allocation. The ministry considered this a continuation of the crimes of genocide and displacement, and an official admission of the occupation's intentions to completely destroy the Gaza Strip and transform it into a land unfit for human habitation. It also clearly reveals plans to displace its population. The ministry condemned in a statement the Israeli occupation's escalation of genocide and the use of starvation as a weapon of war. It affirms that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the State of Palestine, in accordance with international law and legitimacy resolutions, and rejects all calls that treat the Strip as a mere empty land, as if it were up for sale or piracy at the auction of racist colonial rulers. The ministry warned of the dangers of international inaction and failure to halt these crimes and protect Palestinian civilians, calling for immediate intervention to compel the Israeli occupation government to halt its aggression against the Palestinian people and to salvage whatever remains of the credibility of the international system and those responsible for implementing its charters and laws.

UN commission says Israel has committed genocide in GazaIt cites destruction of Gaza fertility clinic in findingsIsrael denies allegations of genocideNajwa Abu Hamada felt no sense of justice when a UN Commission of Inquiry cited the destruction of a fertility clinic among actions that it said showed Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.Instead, the commission’s findings revived painful memories in Abu Hamada of the embryos she had stored at the Al-Basma IVF centre and lost when it was hit by Israeli forces in late 2023.Like other Gazans, Abu Hamada feels helpless and without a voice to protest as Israel presses on with its nearly two-year-old military offensive in Gaza and the death toll keeps rising.“The genocide is not only targeting men, children and women, it is also targeting frozen fertility eggs – my only hope,” Abu Hamada said in Qatar, where she now lives. “Israel came and even carried out genocide which reached even the embryos that belong to me at (the) Al Basma centre. What can compensate me?”Abu Hamada has already had one child by using fertility procedures in Gaza, and is still wondering if she can have another child at the age of 49.On Tuesday, she and her husband Eyad Abu Hamada spoke with her doctor Bahaeldeen Ghalayini, an obstetrician and gynaecologist who established the Al Basma IVF centre, about the possibility of undergoing further fertility treatments.“The doctor told us don’t lose hope,” said her husband.The couple had travelled to Qatar for fertility treatment before the Gaza war began. The loss of her embryos back home in Gaza in 2023 dealt a huge blow to her hopes of having another child.Reuters could not independently verify details of her story. But Ghalayini confirmed separately to Reuters that Abu Hamada had embryos that were stored at the Gaza clinic before it was attacked in late 2023.The UN Commission concluded that the destruction of the Al Basma IVF centre was “a measure intended to prevent births among Palestinians in Gaza” — one of five acts or violations that count as genocide under the 1948 convention.“The Israeli security forces launched a tank shell that directly hit the clinic and caused the explosion of five liquid nitrogen tanks, consequently destroying all the reproductive material that was stored therein for future conception of Palestinians,” it said.Israel has not confirmed striking the clinic. It has denied carrying out genocide or deliberately targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure during its military operation in Gaza, which it says is intended to eradicate Hamas following the group’s storming of Israel in October 2023.Daniel Meron, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said the UN commission of inquiry’s conclusion that Israel has committed genocide was “scandalous” and “fake,” and described its report as a “libelous rant.”Reuters was first to report on the attack that Ghalayini said destroyed 4,000 embryos plus 1,000 more specimens of sperm and unfertilised eggs.The commission’s 72-page legal analysis is the strongest UN finding to date but the body is independent and does not officially speak for the United Nations. The UN has not used the term ‘genocide’ but is under increasing pressure to do so.Israel has accused Hamas fighters of operating from medical facilities, which Hamas denies.Along with the destruction the fertility clinic, the commission of inquiry cited as evidence of genocide the scale of the killings in Gaza, aid blockages and forced displacement.Abu Hamada had a son, Khalil, who was conceived through fertility procedures at a different clinic. He was killed when he was 17, during a flare-up of violence between Israel and the Islamic Jihad fighter group in 2022.“God blessed me with him after 12 years (of infertility) and five (IVF) transplant operations. He is gone after he became a young man and I wanted him to get married and celebrate his wedding, and I lost him,” said Abu Hamada.“We want everyone to stand by us. The whole world is watching and doing nothing.”

United Nations agencies and Oxfam voiced grave concerns on Wednesday about food running out in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people are experiencing famine, after Israel closed the only operational crossing there last week.Israel began its long-expected ground assault on Gaza City in the north on Tuesday and is stepping up efforts to empty the city of civilians by opening an additional route southwards.Hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering in the city and many are reluctant to follow Israel's orders to move because of dangers along the route, dire conditions, a lack of food to the south, and fear of permanent displacement."There are grave concerns over fuel and food stock depletion in a matter of days as there are now no direct aid entry points into northern Gaza and resupply from south to north is increasingly challenging due to mounting road congestion and insecurity," the UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said in a statement.The Zikim Crossing was shut on September 12 and no aid groups have been able to import supplies since, it said.Bushra Khalidi, Policy Lead at Oxfam, said that the move could be "another strategy to corral the population to move down south".Israel's military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its reasons for the closure. Late on Tuesday it said that humanitarian aid would be allowed to enter northern Gaza, without giving details.Israel controls all access to Gaza and says it allows enough food aid into the enclave, where it has been at war with Palestinian fighters Hamas for nearly two years. It accuses Hamas of stealing aid, which the fighters deny."There is an urgent need for an active border point into the north to be opened for essential life-saving humanitarian supplies," said Abeer Etefa, a World Food Programme spokesperson, which had used the crossing before its closure.A global hunger monitor said last month that Gaza City and surrounding areas were officially suffering from famine and that it was likely to spread.

Huge numbers of Palestinians were fleeing Gaza City by any means Wednesday as the Israeli military pressed its ground offensive, killing dozens in strikes.Images showed a steady stream of Gazans heading south on foot, by car and on donkey carts, with their few belongings piled high as Israel bombarded the city.Israel had announced the day before that the US-backed campaign in the Gaza Strip's largest city had begun, pledging to destroy the militant group Hamas in the area.The offensive has sparked outrage among the international community, with the Palestinian territory already devastated by nearly two years of war and the Gaza City region gripped by a UN-declared famine.Gaza's civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority, said Israeli fire had killed at least 62 people across the territory Wednesday.The Israeli military said it was opening a temporary new route via Salah al-Din Street to allow people to flee, after unleashing a massive bombardment before dawn on Tuesday and pushing its troops deeper into Gaza City.It came as a United Nations probe accused Israel of committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials had incited the crime.Israel's Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, said the corridor would remain open for just 48 hours from midday (0900 GMT).Israel's campaign has killed at least 65,062 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

Ben & Jerry's co-founder Jerry Greenfield, whose name helped shape the popular ice cream brand, has quit the company, as its rift with parent Unilever deepened over its stance on the Gaza conflict.In an open letter addressing the Ben & Jerry's community that was shared by his partner Ben Cohen on social media platform X on Wednesday, Greenfield said that the Vermont-based company has lost its independence since Unilever curtailed its social activism.Unilever and Ben & Jerry's have clashed since 2021, when the Chubby Hubby maker said it would stop sales in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.The brand has since sued its parent over alleged efforts to silence it and described the Gaza conflict as "genocide," a rare stance for a major US company.Greenfield said he could no longer "in good conscience" continue working for a company that had been "silenced" by Unilever, despite a merger agreement meant to safeguard the brand's social mission."That independence existed in no small part because of the unique merger agreement Ben and I negotiated with Unilever," he wrote in the letter.A spokesperson for Magnum Ice Cream Company, Unilever's ice cream unit, said that it "disagrees with Greenfield's perspective and has sought to engage both co-founders in a constructive conversation on how to strengthen Ben & Jerry's powerful values-based position in the world."Magnum said Greenfield stepped down as a brand ambassador and that he is not a party to the lawsuit.Unilever did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Greenfield's departure comes as Ben & Jerry's has been calling for its own spin-off ahead of a planned listing of Magnum Ice Cream in November after years of clashing over the US brand's vocal position on Gaza.Last week Cohen demanded to "free Ben & Jerry's" to protect its social values, which was rebuffed by new Magnum CEO Peter ter Kulve.Cohen said the brand had attempted to engineer a sale to investors at a fair market value between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion but the proposal was rejected.Ben & Jerry's was founded by Cohen and Greenfield in a renovated gas station in 1978, and kept its socially conscious mission after Unilever bought it in 2000.