An Israeli conglomerate that operates in the occupied West Bank, supplies the Israeli military, and partially owns Israel’s largest fossil gas field.
Delek Group is one of the largest holding companies in Israel. It is primarily an oil and gas exploration, extraction, and supply company, and it also operates in the agriculture and real estate sectors.
Israeli Apartheid and Illegal Occupation
Delek Group is the majority owner (53%) of Mehadrin Ltd, Israel's largest fruit grower and exporter, which operates in and sources from multiple illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and Golan Heights. In 2024, Mehadrin formed a partnership with TeraLight, another company with involvement in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise, to establish solar power projects on Mehadrin’s agricultural lands.
Delek Group also owns a controlling (24%) stake in Delek Israel Fuel Company Ltd, which is one of the four large Israeli fuel retailers. It operates more than 200 gas stations and convenience stores, at least 10 of which are located in or around illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and 3 in the occupied Golan Heights. In 2021, Delek Israel Fuel was also contracted to provide gas to Ariel University in the Ariel illegal settlement.
Because of these activities, Delek Group was included in the 2000 U.N. database of companies doing business in Israeli illegal settlements. The following year, Norway's largest pension fund KLP divested from Delek Group and 15 other companies that "have actively contributed to violations of human rights in war and conflict situations through their affiliation with the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank."
In addition to its activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, Delek Group subsidiary Delek Israel Fuel is a supplier of the Israeli military and police. Since 2013, it has provided fuel to the Israeli military through its civilian gas stations as well as fuel delivery to Israeli military bases. In 2020, the company was awarded another similar contract, together with Sonol, but only for fueling the military’s vehicles in its civilian gas stations. Initially worth some $566 million for three years, this contract was expanded in 2024 and remains in effect at least through 2025. Delek Israel was also contracted by the Israel Police in 2016 to provide fuel for its policing boats, according to Who Profits.
Delek Group's subsidiary NewMed Energy is also the largest stakeholder in Leviathan, Israel’s largest fossil gas field, operated by Chevron. Leviathan provides fossil gas mainly to Egypt and Jordan, but also to the state-owned Israel Electric Corporation and to smaller private Israeli power companies. They turn the gas into electricity and feed it into the Israeli power grid, which includes all Israeli military bases and other government agencies, as well as Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories. Delek is the majority owner (54%) of NewMed Energy, which in turn owns 45% of Leviathan, while Chevron owns 40%.
Until 2021, NewMed, then named Delek Drilling, also owned a 22% stake in Tamar, Israel’s 2nd largest fossil gas field, which supplies most of Israel's energy needs. NewMed also partially owns Mari-B, a depleted and inactive fossil gas field off the coast of the Gaza Strip. In 2025, Israel awarded NewMed additional fossil gas exploration licenses.
Occupied Western Sahara and Other Global Operations
In 2022, Delek subsidiary NewMed Energy entered into a partnership with the Moroccan Government and Adarco Energy to explore and extract fossil gas in the offshore Boujdour Atlantique gas reservoir, which is located in the occupied Western Sahara. Delek publicly acknowledges that the territory is "disputed according to the U.N." and justifies its activities there saying that the U.S. and Israeli governments have recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in 2020.
The Norwegian state wealth fund divested from Delek because of this activity in 2023, clarifying that "Morocco does not have legal, sovereign rights over this area’s natural resources," and that "the activity is not conducted in accordance with the wishes and interests of the people of Western Sahara."
Most of Delek Group's overall revenue comes from its operations in the U.K. North Sea oil and gas fields, which it conducts through its subsidiary Ithaca Energy. In 2024, Greenpeace Norway sued Norwegian oil company Equinor over its partnership with Ithaca in the North Sea, because of Delek Group's involvement in human rights abuses.
Delek also operates in Cyprus and Bulgaria.
In the past, Delek Group operated in the U.S. through Delek US Holdings, which is based in Tennessee and works on oil refining, logistics, and bio-fuels. Delek US became publicly-traded in 2006, and Delek Group gradually sold its controlling stake in it. The two companies are no longer associated.