Israel is situated in the Middle East with a coast-line at the Mediterranean Sea and a small outlet in the south to the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea). Israel is bordered by Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinian territories (West Bank and the Gaza Strip), it also shares maritime borders with Cyprus. The country covers an area of 22,072 km², making it slightly larger than half the size of Denmark, or slightly larger than the US state of New Jersey.

Israel's landscape offers a populous coastal plain, the sparsely inhabited Negev desert in the south, the mountain ranges of the Galilee, Carmel, and the Golan. Situated in the Jordan Rift Valley is the Sea of Galilee, also known as the miraculous Lake of Gennesaret or Lake Tiberias, the world's lowest freshwater lake (-212 m (696 ft)), the lake is connected by the Lower Jordan River with the Dead Sea, the famous saltwater lake, its surface, and shores are 430.5 m (1,412 ft) below sea level, making it Earth's lowest elevation on land.

Israel has a population of 8.6 million people (in 2017), spoken languages are Hebrew and Arabic. The largest and most populous city and designated capital is Jerusalem, but Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem is internationally disputed. The country's financial center is Tel Aviv, which is also home to all foreign diplomatic missions, embassies, and consulates in Israel.

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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 Israel 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. On 25 May 2000, Israel withdrew unilaterally from southern Lebanon, which it had occupied since 1982.