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State of Israel
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Territories controlled by Israel and recognized by the UN are indark green Territories controlled by Israel but not recognized by the UN are inlight green
Israel's population is around 9.8 million people. This includes around 7 million Jews. Most of Israel's other citizens (1.2 million) areArabs and includeMuslims,Christians, andDruze.[20][21][22] Israel is approximately 470 kilometers (290 miles) long and 135 kilometers (85 miles) wide at its widest point, making it a relatively small country in terms of land area.[23]
Israel'shistory begins thousands of years ago, inancient times. Two major world religions,Judaism andChristianity, began here. The Jewishnation and religion first grew in this region.
Canaanites and otherSemitic peoples first populated the area around four thousand years ago. According to theBible, the first Jewishpatriarch,Abraham, lived at this time.
Around 1400BCE, another Semitic people called theHebrews settled inCanaan under the leadership ofMoses andJoshua. They were named the “Children of Israel” or “Israelites”, and were divided into 12tribes.
Solomon died around 928 BCE, and his kingdom broke into two countries. The northern country kept the nameIsrael. The southern country, calledJudah, kept Jerusalem as its capital.
TheAssyrians conquered the Kingdom of Israel in 732 BCE. Then, in 586 BCE, theBabylonians conquered the Kingdom of Judah and destroyedSolomon's Temple. In response, many Jews returned from Babylonia to rebuild their country and their temple.
Early in the first century, Roman soldiers defeated the Jews in modern-day Israel. In 70CE, they destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Jewish Temple there. Again in 135 CE, the Romans defeated the Jews and killed or took many of them to other places.
The number of Jews living in Israel became much smaller. Many were forced to live in other countries. Thisspreading of Jewishcommunities outside of Israel is called theDiaspora.
The name "Palestine" is the English version of the Romans' name for the area, which wasSyria Palaestina. This name in turn was derived from that of thePhilistines, one of ancient Israel's historical enemies.[26][27]
Since the Diaspora, there have been many attempts to make a new homeland for the Jewish people. Starting in 1860, the Zionist movement advocated for the creation of a Jewish nation in Israel. Jews from all over the world began to come to the area and settled indesert zones. These zones were first governed by the Ottoman Empire, and later by the British Empire.
Map of the original1947 UN Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine. The territory was to be divided between an Arab and a Jewish state, with Jerusalem becoming an internationally-administered space.
TheUN estimated that more than 700,000Palestinians had left during thewar, with many of them forced to leave. This became known as theNakba ("catastrophe").[40][41] At the same time, over 900,000 Jews left theArab states, with many of them also being forced to leave.[42]
A map of the military advances and the territory gained by Israel during the Six-Day War
In May 1967, Egypt sentits army near the border with Israel,expelledUN peacekeepers that had been in the Sinai Peninsula since 1957, and blocked Israel's access to theRed Sea.[43][44][45] Other Arab states also prepared their armies.[46] Israelreiterated that these actions were acasus belli, and fearing another all-out invasion by their Arab neighbors, launched apre-emptive strike against Egypt on 5 June. Shortly after, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq attacked Israel. In the followingSix-Day War, Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan, the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and theGolan Heights from Syria.[47] Israeli forces expelled ~300,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Jerusalem's boundaries were increased, incorporatingEast Jerusalem. The 1949 Green Line became the administrative boundary between Israel and theoccupied territories.[48]
On 6 October 1973, the Egyptian and Syrian armies launched a surprise attack against Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights, opening theYom Kippur War. The war ended on 25 October, with Israel repelling Egyptian and Syrian forces but suffering great losses.[53]
In 1978, Egyptian PresidentAnwar Sadat and Israeli Prime MinisterMenachem Begin signed theCamp David Accords. The next year, in 1979, they signed theEgypt–Israel peace treaty.[54] In return, Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula and agreed to enter negotiations over autonomy for Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.[54] This was the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab state. 15 years later, in 1994, theIsrael–Jordan peace treaty was signed, making Jordan the second Arab country to normalize relations with Israel.[55]
Since the 1980s, Israel has waged several wars in Lebanon to fight against the PLO and later,Hezbollah, beginning with the1982 Lebanon War, and mostly recently, theIsrael–Hezbollah conflict (2023–present). However, there a number of atrocities committed against the civilian population, with the most notable incident of this being theSabra and Shatila massacre.[56] In 2000, Israel withdrew from Lebanon. Subsequently, Israel fought two more wars against Hezbollah, one inin 2006, and another onesince 2023.
In 2005, Israel withdrew from theGaza Strip.[57] However, 2 years later, in 2007, theHamas militant organization seized control of the territory from the Palestinian Fatah party, in a violent coup. Beginning in 2008, Hamas and Israel fought five separate wars, in2008, 2012,2024,2021, and mostly recently, in2023.
By the 2010s,increasing regional cooperation between Israel and Arab League countries had been established, with the countries drawn increasingly closer by shared security interests, and their concerns with Iran. In September 2020, this culminated in the signing of theAbraham Accords, with theUnited Arab Emirates,Bahrain, andMorocco all normalizing ties with Israel, marking the first peace agreement between Israel and an Arab state since 1994. Sudan also signed onto the Accords, but had not yet ratified it by 2025. The Israeli security situation shifted from the traditionalArab–Israeli conflict towards the Iran–Israel proxy conflict, and direct confrontation with Iran during theSyrian Civil War.
On 7 October 2023, over 6,800 Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and launched theOctober 7 attacks, massacring 1,915 Israelis (including 815 civilians), and taking 251 hostages, which started the 2023Gaza War.[58][59][60] This war quickly expanded intoa regional conflict, includinga war with Hezbollah in Lebanon,a conflict involving attacks by theHouthis on Israel and on international shipping in the Red Sea, attacks by Iranian militia groupson US military bases in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan, and two rounds of attacks between Iran and Israel inApril 2024 andOctober 2024. Hezbollah's defeat in Lebanon led toa massive offensive led byHay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Syria, restarting the Syrian Civil War after a 4-year pause, and leading to theFall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024.[61][62] In June 2025, the regional conflict culminated ina full-scale war between Israel and Iran, with Israel opening the war with large-scale surprise attacks on Iran's military leadership, top nuclear scientists, andnuclear program.[63][64][65] which later became known as the Twelve-Day War.[66][67] The war saw the entry of the United States on 22 June 2025, with a fleet of 14B-2 bombers destroying 3 fortified nuclear sites in central Iran,in a massive airstrike.[68][69]
Jerusalem is the biggest city in Israel. It is also Israel's officialcapital city. However, most countries do not recognize this, because they believe Jerusalem should be split up or be under international control.Tel Aviv,Haifa,Beersheba andRishon LeZion are also large cities.
To the north, Israel has amountainous region called theGalilee. On the eastern side of the Galilee, there is a low area called a depression that includes theHula Valley and theSea of Galilee.
To the south, there is the NegevDesert: a barren area of flatplains, mountains, andcraters. Israel's southern-most city isEilat, which is located on theGulf of Aqaba (a part of theRed Sea).
In the center of the country, there is arange of mountains that runs from north to south. TheJordan River also runs north to south, starting in the Sea of Galilee in the north and emptying into theDead Sea in the south. The land next to the Dead Sea -426meters belowsea level: the lowest in the world.[70]
Theclimate is hot and dry in the summers, with highhumidity inlower places like thecoastal plain. It is cool and rainy in the winters, rarely going below freezing temperatures. Rain falls mostly in the north, and mostly in the winter (between the months ofNovember andApril).Snow falls at higherelevations. While much of Israel has a Mediterranean climate, certain regions, such as the Golan Heights and Jerusalem, experience snowfall during the winter months.[71]
To make it possible for crops to grow in the south, Israel built a very bigirrigation system to bring water to the area from the north.[70]
The Knesset has 120members. Each member iselected for no more than four years at a time. The Knesset makeslaws, helps decide nationalpolicy, and approvesbudgets andtaxes. The current Knesset is the country's 25th, sworn in on November 15, 2022.
Voters do not vote for individualcandidates in Knessetelections. Instead, they vote for aparty. Before the election, each party prepares a list of its candidates. The list might include a single candidate or over a hundred. Voters can see each party's list and decide which party they want to vote for.
In an election, each party wins a certainpercentage of the votes. This percentage decides how manyrepresentatives, or seats, the party gets in the Knesset. For example, if a party list gets 33 percent of the vote, it gets 40 Knesset seats.
The head of Israel's government is thePrime Minister. They are usually theleader of the party that has the most seats in the Knesset. The prime minister must keep the support of amajority of Knesset members in order to stay in office.
The prime ministerappointsministers to thecabinet, which The Knesset approves. The ministers areresponsible for subjects such aseducation,defense, andsocial welfare. The Prime Minister is the head of the cabinet; they decide what will be discussed at meetings, and they make the final decisions.
Benjamin Netanyahu has been the Israeli Prime Minister since December 29, 2022. The current government is called the Sixth Netanyahu Government because it was the sixth time Netanyahu has been elected.
Most of the president's duties areceremonial: they can sign laws andtreaties approved by the Knesset, appointjudges, and choose members of some public organizations. They also accept the documents fromambassadors and foreigndiplomats bring when they areappointed.
Isaac Herzog has been the President of Israel since July 2021.
Usually, a single political party does not win enough seats in the Knesset by itself to have amajority. If this happens, one of the bigger parties asks for support from the other parties (including the religious ones) to form acoalition government. This gives these small parties a lot of power despite their size.
The Likud supportsfree marketpolicies and does not think government should be involved much with theeconomy. It also believes strongly in protecting Israel'ssecurity. It wants Israel to make fewer concessions (to give less away) whilenegotiating with thePalestinians and the Arab states.
The Labor Party supports governmentcontrol of the economy, but also believes in a limited amount offree enterprise. It is willing to make more concessions (to give more away) in order to reach an agreement in thepeace process.
When it gained its independence in 1948, Israel was apoor country that produced very littleagriculture orindustry. But Israel'seconomy has grown tremendously since 1948. The nation now enjoys a very high standard of living, despite having fewnatural resources and a limitedfresh water supply.
Manyimmigrants came to Israel in the years immediately after independence. Many of these immigrants were skilled laborers andprofessionals who greatly aided the nation's economic development.
Many of Israel'sservice industry workers are employed by the government or by businesses owned by the government. Government workers provide many of theservices needed by Israel's large immigrant population, such as housing,education, and job training.
Tourists support many of Israel's service industries, especiallytrade,restaurants, andhotels. Approximately 4 million tourists visited Israel in 2018.[74]
Israel produces most of the food it needs to feed its people, except forgrain. Exporting agricultural products provides enough income to import needed foods. Israel's agricultural products includecitrus and otherfruits;eggs;grain;poultry; andvegetables.
The government develops, helps finance, and controls agricultural activity, includingfishing andforestry.
Most Israeli farmers use modern agricultural methods. Machines now do much of the work that people used to do. Water drawn from the Sea of Galilee irrigates much of the land in Israel.
Most Israelifarms are organized as moshavim orkibbutzim. Israel also has some private farms.
Solar energy – energy from thesun – is used widely to heat water for houses. Israel is developing other ways to use solar energy to power houses and factories.
In 2008, Israel began investing in buildingelectric cars and stations to charge them. There may also be largenatural gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea that Israel could develop.
In 2006, Israeli exports grew by 11% to just over $29 billion. The hi-tech sector accounted for $14 billion of this: a 20% increase from the previous year.
Because it has few natural resources, Israel imports more goods than it exports. The country's main imports include chemicals,computer equipment, grain,iron andsteel, military equipment,petroleum products, rough diamonds, and textiles.
Israel has a well-developedtransportation system. Mostmiddle-class Israeli families either own a car or have one that an employer provides. Paved roads reach almost all parts of the country.Public transportation, both in cities and between them, is provided primarily bybus.
Ben-Gurion Airport is Israel's maininternational airport. It is near Tel Aviv. Smaller airports are located at Haifa and at Eilat. El Al, Israel's internationalairline, flies regularly to the United States,Europe, and parts ofAsia.
Israel has three major deepwaterports: Haifa, Ashdod, and Eilat.
Israel'scommunication system is one of the best in the Middle East. Israel has about 30 dailynewspapers, about half of which are inHebrew. The rest are inArabic,Russian,Yiddish, or one of several foreignlanguages. The Israel Broadcasting Authority, a public corporation set up by the government, runs thetelevision and nonmilitaryradio stations.
↑Arabic previously had been an official language of the State of Israel.[10] In 2018its classification was changed to a 'special status in the state' with its use by state institutions to be set in law.[11][12][13]
↑"Czech Republic announces it recognizes West Jerusalem as Israel's capital".Jerusalem Post. 6 December 2017. Retrieved6 December 2017.The Czech Republic currently, before the peace between Israel and Palestine is signed, recognizes Tel Aviv to be the capital of Israel in the borders of the demarcation line from 1967." The Ministry also said that it would only consider relocating its embassy based on "results of negotiations.
↑"Press Releases from the Knesset".Knesset website. 19 July 2018.The Arabic language has a special status in the state; Regulating the use of Arabic in state institutions or by them will be set in law.
↑"Home page". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved20 February 2017.
↑Population Census 2008(PDF) (Report). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. 2008. Retrieved27 December 2016.
↑"הודעות לתקשורת".www1.cbs.gov.il (in Hebrew). 2014. Archived fromthe original on December 30, 2013. RetrievedJanuary 31, 2014.
↑An additional 4.7 million people live under Israel's occupation ofPalestine (2.9 million in West Bank and 1.8 million in Gaza Strip), but are neither citizens of Israel, nor citizens of any country that Israelrecognizes
↑Magness 2012, p.260: "To further punish the Jews, Hadrian instituted bans restricting or prohibiting some Jewish practices, such as circumcision and sabbath observance. For the first time, Jews living under Roman rule were subject to persecution under the law for practicing their religion. Finally, to obliterate the memory of this troublesome people, Hadrian changed the name of the province from Judea to Syria-Palaestina, reviving the name of the ancient kingdom of Philistia."
↑Feldman 1996, p.553: "Herodotus in the fifth century B.C.E. mentions Palestine; he refers only to the coastal area, so called because it had been inhabited by the Philistines; or he is speaking loosely, since the only part of the area that he had visited was apparently along the coast. ... That the official term for this region is Judaea may be seen from military diplomas and other inscriptions, as well as from coins, prior to the time of Hadrian. It is so designated in the official letter of the Emperor. ... Coins of Hadrian issued before the Bar Kochba rebellion in 132 C.E. refer to Judaea; within a few years after the rebellion the name of Judaea was officially changed to Palestine, the aim being to obliterate the Jewish character of the land, with the name of the nearest tribe being applied to the entire area. Yet, even after the name was officially changed, some inscriptions, as well as such literary figures as Galen and Celsus in the second century, Dio Cassius and Origen in the third century, and Eusebius and Jerome in the fourth century, still refer to Judaea." harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFeldman1996 (help)
↑Clifford, Clark, "Counsel to the President: A Memoir", 1991, p. 20.
↑Morris 2008, p.396: "The immediate trigger of the 1948 War was the November 1947 UN partition resolution. The Zionist movement, except for its fringes, accepted the proposal."
↑Morris 2008, p.187: "A week before the armies marched, Azzam told Kirkbride: "It does not matter how many [Jews] there are. We will sweep them into the sea." ... Ahmed Shukeiry, one of HajAmin_al-Husseini's aides (and, later, the founding chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization), simply described the aim as "the elimination of the Jewish state." ... al-Quwwatli told his people: "Our army has entered ... we shall win and we shall eradicate Zionism""
↑Samir A. Mutawi (2002).Jordan in the 1967 War. Cambridge University Press. p.93.ISBN978-0-521-52858-0.Archived from the original on 31 October 2023. Retrieved17 September 2021.Although Eshkol denounced the Egyptians, his response to this development was a model of moderation. His speech on 21 May demanded that Nasser withdraw his forces from Sinai but made no mention of the removal of UNEF from the Straits nor of what Israel would do if they were closed to Israeli shipping. The next day, Nasser announced to an astonished world that henceforth the Straits were, indeed, closed to all Israeli ships
↑"Biden Energy Adviser to Discuss Lebanon Border Issues on Israel Trip".Asharq Al-Awsat. November 20, 2023.Archived from the original on 28 November 2023. RetrievedNovember 20, 2023.In the months before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian Hamas militants who run the Gaza Strip, Hochstein said the United States was exploring the possibility of resolving the longstanding border dispute between Lebanon and Israel.
↑Jason Burke (November 9, 2023)."A deadly cascade: how secret Hamas attack orders were passed down at last minute".The Guardian.Archived from the original on 17 December 2023. RetrievedNovember 20, 2023.Analysts said other objectives of the 7 October attacks probably included halting efforts to normalise relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, further undermining the Palestinian Authority, distracting from Hamas's failure to deliver services or break the blockade of Gaza, and provoking a violent reaction from Israel that would mobilise its own supporters in Gaza, the West Bank and elsewhere.
↑Rich Outzen; Qutaiba Idlbi; Jonathan Panikoff; Gissou Nia; R. Clarke Cooper; Mark N. Katz; Danny Citrinowicz; Emily Milliken; Thomas S. Warrick; Arwa Damon; Sarah Zaaimi; Richard LeBaron; Karim Mezran; Joze Pelayo; Alex Plitsas; Nicholas Blanford; Daniel Mouton; Alia Brahimi (8 December 2024)."Experts react: Rebels have toppled the Assad regime. What's next for Syria, the Middle East, and the world?".Atlantic Council. Retrieved28 November 2025.
Feldman, Louis H. (1990). "Some Observations on the Name of Palestine".Hebrew Union College Annual.61. Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion:1–23.JSTOR23508170.
Harkavy, Robert E.; Neuman, Stephanie G. (2001).Warfare and the Third World. Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN978-0-312-24012-7.
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