Situated in an area that, according to the Hebrew Bible, was formerly occupied by the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah, Israel is a country of Western Asia.
Officially called State of Israel (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Medīnat Yisrā’el; Arabic: دولة إِسرائيل‎, Dawlat Isrāʼīl), it is located on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean sea. It shares land borders with Lebanon and Syria to the north, Jordan to the East, Egypt to the south and the Palestinian territories of West Bank to the east and Gaza strip to the southwest.
With an area of 20,770 sq km and a population of 8,146,300 people, 75.3% of whom are Jewish, Israel is the world’s only Jewish-majority state.
In spite of several wars with neighboring states, some of them ongoing, it achieved independence from Mandatory Palestine under British administration on 1 May 1949.