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 Ben-Gurion International Airport, Israel
Beer-Sheva, Israel
Eilat, Israel
Sde-Haifa Haifa, Israel
Galilee / Pina, Israel
Jerusalem Airport, Israel
Ovda, Israel
Location: Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea,
between Egypt and Lebanon
Geographic coordinates: 31 30 N, 34 45 E
Map references: Middle East
Area:
total: 20,770 sq km
land: 20,330 sq km
water: 440 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly smaller than New Jersey
Land boundaries:
total: 1,006 km
border countries: Egypt 255 km, Gaza Strip 51 km, Jordan
238 km, Lebanon 79 km, Syria 76 km, West Bank 307 km
Coastline: 273 km
Maritime claims:
continental shelf: to depth of exploitation
territorial sea: 12 nm
Climate: temperate; hot and dry in southern and eastern
desert areas
Terrain: Negev desert in the south; low coastal plain; central
mountains; Jordan Rift Valley
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Dead Sea -408 m
highest point: Har Meron 1,208 m
Natural resources: copper, phosphates, bromide, potash,
clay, sand, sulfur, asphalt, manganese, small amounts of natural
gas and crude oil
Land use:
arable land: 17%
permanent crops: 4%
permanent pastures: 7%
forests and woodland: 6%
other: 66% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 1,800 sq km (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: sandstorms may occur during spring and
summer
Environment - current issues: limited arable land and natural
fresh water resources pose serious constraints; desertification;
air pollution from industrial and vehicle emissions; groundwater
pollution from industrial and domestic waste, chemical fertilizers,
and pesticides
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer
Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
Marine Life Conservation
Geography - note: there are 231 Israeli settlements and
civilian land use sites in the West Bank, 42 in the Israeli-occupied
Golan Heights, 24 in the Gaza Strip, and 29 in East Jerusalem (August
1999 est.)
Background: Following World War II, the British withdrew
from their mandate of Palestine, and the UN partitioned the area
into Arab and Jewish states, an arrangement rejected by the Arabs.
Subsequently, the Israelis defeated the Arabs in a series of wars
without ending the deep tensions between the two sides.
The territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 war are not included
in the Isreal country profile, unless otherwise noted. In keeping
with the framework established at the Madrid Conference in October
1991, bilateral negotiations are being conducted between Israel
and Palestinian representatives (from the Israeli-occupied West
Bank and Gaza Strip) and Israel and Syria, to achieve a permanent
settlement.
On 25 April 1982, Israel withdrew from the Sinai pursuant to the
1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.
Outstanding territorial and other disputes with Jordan were resolved
in the 26 October 1994 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace.
Israel
GEOGRAPHY
Size: About 20,700 square kilometers. Occupied
territories comprise additional 7,477 square kilometers: West Bank,
5,879; Gaza Strip, 378; East Jerusalem, annexed in July 1980, 70;
and Golan Heights, annexed in December 1981, 1,150.
Topography: Four general areas: coastal plain--fertile,
humid, and thickly populated--stretches along Mediterranean Sea;
central highlands including Hills of Galilee in north with country's
highest elevation at Mt. Meron (1,208 meters), and arid Judean Hills
in south; Jordan Rift Valley with lowest point (399 meters below
sea level) at Dead Sea; and Negev Desert, which accounts for about
half Israel's area.
Data as of December 1988
Israel
GEOGRAPHY
Israel is located at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.
It is bounded on the north by Lebanon, on the northeast by Syria,
on the east and southeast by Jordan, on the southwest by Egypt,
and on the west by the Mediterranean Sea (see
fig. 1). Before June 1967, the area composing Israel (resulting
from the armistice lines of 1949 and 1950) was about 20,700 square
kilometers, which included 445 square kilometers of inland water.
Thus Israel was roughly the size of the state of New Jersey, stretching
424 kilometers from north to south. Its width ranged from 114 kilometers
to, at its narrowest point, 10 kilometers. The area added to Israel
after the June 1967 War, consisting of occupied territories (the
West Bank--see Glossary--and
the Gaza Strip) and annexed territories (East Jerusalem and the
Golan Heights) totaled an additional 7,477 square kilometers. The
areas comprised the West Bank, 5,879 kilometers; the Gaza Strip,
378; East Jerusalem, 70; and the Golan Heights, 1,150.
Data as of December 1988
Israel
Topography
The country is divided into four regions: the coastal plain, the
central hills, the Jordan Rift Valley, and the Negev Desert . The
Mediterranean coastal plain stretches from the Lebanese border in
the north to Gaza in the south, interrupted only by Cape Carmel
at Haifa Bay. It is about forty kilometers wide at Gaza and narrows
toward the north to about five kilometers at the Lebanese border.
The region is fertile and humid (historically malarial) and is known
for its citrus and viniculture. The plain is traversed by several
short streams, of which only two, the Yarqon and Qishon, have permanent
water flows.
East of the coastal plain lies the central highland region. In
the north of this region lie the mountains and hills of Upper Galilee
and Lower Galilee; farther to the south are the Samarian Hills with
numerous small, fertile valleys; and south of Jerusalem are the
mainly barren hills of Judea. The central highlands average 610
meters in height and reach their highest elevation at Mount Meron,
at 1,208 meters, in Galilee near Zefat (Safad). Several valleys
cut across the highlands roughly from east to west; the largest
is the Yizreel or Jezreel Valley (also known as the Plain of Esdraelon),
which stretches forty-eight kilometers from Haifa southeast to the
valley of the Jordan River, and is nineteen kilometers across at
its widest point.
East of the central highlands lies the Jordan Rift Valley, which
is a small part of the 6,500-kilometer-long Syrian-East African
Rift. In Israel the Rift Valley is dominated by the Jordan River,
Lake Tiberias (known also as the Sea of Galilee and to Israelis
as Lake Kinneret), and the Dead Sea. The Jordan, Israel's largest
river (322 kilometers long), originates in the Dan, Baniyas, and
Hasbani rivers near Mount Hermon in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and
flows south through the drained Hula Basin into the freshwater Lake
Tiberias. Lake Tiberias is 165 square kilometers in size and, depending
on the season and rainfall, is at about 213 meters below sea level.
With a capacity estimated at 3 billion cubic meters, it serves as
the principal reservoir of the National Water Carrier (also known
as the Kinneret-Negev Conduit). The Jordan River continues its course
from the southern end of Lake Tiberias (forming the boundary between
the West Bank and Jordan) to its terminus in the highly saline Dead
Sea. The Dead Sea is 1,020 square kilometers in size and, at 399
meters below sea level, is the lowest point in the world. South
of the Dead Sea, the Rift Valley continues in the Nahal HaArava
(Wadi al Arabah in Arabic), which has no permanent water flow, for
170 kilometers to the Gulf of Aqaba.
The Negev Desert comprises approximately 12,000 square kilometers,
more than half of Israel's total land area. Geographically it is
an extension of the Sinai Desert, forming a rough triangle with
its base in the north near Beersheba (also seen as Beersheva), the
Dead Sea, and the southern Judean Hills, and it has its apex in
the southern tip of the country at Elat. Topographically, it parallels
the other regions of the country, with lowlands in the west, hills
in the central portion, and the Nahal HaArava as its eastern border.
Data as of December 1988
Israel
Climate
Israel has a Mediterranean climate characterized by long, hot,
dry summers and short, cool, rainy winters, as modified locally
by altitude and latitude. The climate is determined by Israel's
location between the subtropical aridity characteristic of Egypt
and the subtropical humidity of the Levant or eastern Mediterranean.
January is the coldest month, with temperatures from 5 C to 10 C,
and August is the hottest month at 18 C to 38 C. About 70 percent
of the average rainfall in the country falls between November and
March; June through August are often rainless. Rainfall is unevenly
distributed, decreasing sharply as one moves southward. In the extreme
south, rainfall averages less than 100 millimeters annually; in
the north, average annual rainfall is 1,128 millimeters. Rainfall
varies from season to season and from year to year, particularly
in the Negev Desert. Precipitation is often concentrated in violent
storms, causing erosion and flooding. During January and February,
it may take the form of snow at the higher elevations of the central
highlands, including Jerusalem. The areas of the country most cultivated
are those that receive more than 300 millimeters of rainfall annually;
about one-third of the country is cultivable.
Data as of December 1988
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