Israel Map

About Israel

Israel lies on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean, about 470 km from north to south but only about 15 km wide at its narrowest point north of Tel Aviv. The area figure of 22,072 square kilometers used on this page includes East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, both captured in 1967 and later annexed by Israel; neither annexation is recognized by the UN or most countries (the United States recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan in 2019). The figure excludes the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which are covered on the Palestine map. About 9.5 million people live in Israel (UN World Population Prospects, 2025 estimate). Hebrew is the official language, and Arabic has a special status under a 2018 law. About three-quarters of the population is Jewish and about a fifth Arab, most of them Muslim, with Christian and Druze minorities. The state is divided into six districts.

Jerusalem's status

Israel designates Jerusalem as its capital, and the Knesset, the Supreme Court and most ministries are there. Most countries do not recognize it as Israel's capital pending a negotiated settlement and keep their embassies in or near Tel Aviv; the United States moved its embassy to Jerusalem in 2018, and a few other states have followed. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem, including the Old City with the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, as the capital of a Palestinian state.

From the Golan to Eilat

The coastal plain, from Haifa south through Tel Aviv to Ashkelon, holds most of the population and industry. Inland, the hills of the Galilee rise to Mount Meron (1,208 m), the highest point within Israel's pre-1967 lines; in the part of the Golan Heights Israel has held since 1967, Mount Hermon reaches about 2,236 m. To the east, the Jordan Rift Valley runs from the Hula Valley through the freshwater Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret), about 210 m below sea level, along the Jordan River to the Dead Sea, whose shore, more than 430 m below sea level, is the lowest land on Earth and falls by about a meter a year. The Negev desert covers more than half of the territory, including the erosion crater of Makhtesh Ramon, and narrows to a point at Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba, Israel's outlet to the Red Sea.

The climate is Mediterranean in the north and center, with nearly all rain falling between November and March, and desert in the south. Summer on the coast is hot and humid, while Jerusalem, at about 750-800 m, is cooler and can see snow on rare winter days. Spring and autumn are the most pleasant seasons; the Dead Sea and Eilat are very hot from June to September. Israel has little natural fresh water, and desalination plants on the Mediterranean now supply most of its drinking water, while close to 90% of wastewater is treated and reused, mostly for farming.

Major Cities

• Jerusalem - The largest city, with close to 1 million residents in its municipal area (which includes East Jerusalem), in the Judean hills
• Tel Aviv-Yafo - About 480,000 people in the city, at the center of the Gush Dan metropolitan area of more than 4 million; the country's business, technology and nightlife center, with the "White City" of Bauhaus buildings listed by UNESCO
• Haifa - The northern port and industrial center on the slopes of Mount Carmel, home to the Baha'i World Centre and its terraced gardens
• Rishon LeZion - Founded in 1882 by early Zionist settlers, now a large city on the coastal plain south of Tel Aviv
• Beersheba - The main city of the Negev, with Ben-Gurion University and a growing cybersecurity cluster

How the lines were drawn

Britain governed Palestine under a League of Nations mandate from 1920. In 1947 the UN proposed partition into Jewish and Arab states; Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948, and the war that followed left armistice lines, the "Green Line", with Jordan holding the West Bank and East Jerusalem and Egypt holding Gaza. Some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled during the 1948 war. In June 1967 Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, the Sinai and the Golan Heights. Sinai was returned to Egypt under the 1979 peace treaty, and Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994. Israel withdrew its settlers and troops from Gaza in 2005, and in 2020 it established relations with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco under the Abraham Accords.

The Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023, which killed about 1,200 people in Israel, began the Gaza war, which devastated the Gaza Strip; a US-brokered ceasefire took effect on 10 October 2025, though its later phases have stalled. Israel also fought Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2024 and again from March 2026, and fought Iran in June 2025 and, alongside the United States, from February 2026. As of late October 2026, Benjamin Netanyahu heads the government, and elections for the Knesset are scheduled for 27 October 2026. Israel's economy is one of the most developed in the region, led by software, cybersecurity, semiconductors and medical technology, with GDP per capita of about US$60,300 in 2025 (World Bank).