McDonalds bought the McD branded restaurants in Israel. They did not leave Israel. If anything McDonalds now have even stronger ties with their israeli restaurants, that are now owned directly by McD corp, than with their Malaysian ones which are operated by local franchisees through a Saudi company.

Who knows if they made this move in order to close down all activities in Israel later or to double down on serving free burgers to the IDF. I think we will know soon.