Israel: Middle East powerhouse

Israel, which holds parliamentary elections on November 1, has been in conflict with the Palestinians and some neighbouring Arab states since it was founded in 1948.

Established as a homeland for the Jewish people in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust during World War II, it has since emerged as the Middle East's military powerhouse.

Here are some key facts about the country.

- Wars -

Israel is considered the leading military power in the Middle East and is widely believed to possess the region's sole, if undeclared, nuclear arsenal.

It has fought a series of wars with its Arab neighbours, the first of which broke out on May 15, 1948, a day after Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the country's creation as the British mandate withdrew from Palestine.

In the Six-Day War of June 1967, Israel seized the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan, the Gaza Strip, Egypt's Sinai and the strategic Golan Heights from Syria.

Israel later annexed east Jerusalem and the Golan, moves denounced by most of the international community, and still occupies the West Bank.

Its last major military operation was in 2021 in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, the blockaded Palestinian coastal territory from which Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2005, and this August it also launched a three-day offensive on militants in the densely-populated enclave.

- Settlements and intifadas -

Israel's population has increased more than tenfold since 1948, reaching 9.6 million, according to official statistics.

More than 475,000 Israeli settlers live uneasily alongside though mostly apart from 2.8 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The international community regards the settlements as illegal and as an obstacle to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israel has faced two Palestinian uprisings or intifadas -- from 1987 to 1993 and 2000 to 2005.

The first ended with the signing in Washington of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

- Jerusalem -

Israel considers Jerusalem to be its "eternal and indivisible" capital, while the Palestinians want to make the east of the holy city the capital of their future state.

More than 200,000 Israelis live in settlements in annexed east Jerusalem.

Former US president Donald Trump broke with most of the international community in 2017 by recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

- Regional ties, tensions -

Egypt and Jordan were the first Arab countries to recognise and sign peace deals with Israel, in 1979 and 1994 respectively.

Washington, a staunch ally of Israel, engineered a major shift in Israel's fractious relations with other Arab countries during the Trump presidency.

It backed Israel's settlement policy and sponsored its normalisation of ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco since mid-2020, to the Palestinians' ire.

The United States also helped broker a new agreement with Israel's longtime foe Lebanon to demarcate their maritime border.

Since the war in Syria began in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the territory of its Iran-allied neighbour to the north.

The Jewish state has been walking a diplomatic tightrope over the war in Ukraine in February, and has vowed not to send weapons to Kyiv after warnings from Russia.

- Arab minority -

Israel has no written constitution. In its place, it has developed a system of basic laws and rights.

In 2018, parliament adopted a controversial law defining the country as the nation state of the Jewish people, provoking fears it will lead to blatant discrimination against Arab citizens.

Arabs constitute around 20 percent of Israel's population and have long complained of discrimination by the state.

Last year, an independent Arab party joined government for the first time, but the coalition collapsed within months.

Global rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say Israel's treatment of its Arab minority and Palestinians amounts to apartheid, which Israeli denies.

- 'Startup nation' -

Israel's hi-tech sector employs 10 percent of its workforce, according to official figures, giving the country the name "startup nation".

Israeli tech companies have developed particular expertise in cyber defence and surveillance.

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