Israel is bordered by Egypt in the south, by Lebanon in the north, by Syria in the north-east and a long border with Jordan in the east. The Israel coastline is on the Mediterranean Sea from the west and on the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea on the south. Israel has two seas - the Sea of Galilee and the salty Dead Sea.
Israel captured some territories in the Six Day War - the Golan Heights from the Syrians, the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the Old City of Jerusalem from the Jordanians, and the Sinai from the Egyptians. In 1982 Israel withdrew its troops and from its settlements in the Sinai and returned the land to the Egyptians in a peace agreement with Egypt. In 2005 Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip in a Disengagement Plan and during this process destroyed all of its settlements and army bases.
Total Israeli territory including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights is 22,150km.
In comparison to its size, Israel has a wide range of weather and climate. In short we can say that Israel’s climate is characterized by a short rainy cool winter from November to February and a long hot dry summer from May to September. January and February are the coldest months with temperature as low as 0° C and even below and July and August being the hottest months with temperatures climbing beyond 40°C. 70% of the rainfall in the country falls between November and March while June through August is usually rainfree.
Due to global warming and the weather changes all over the world, the weather has tended to change a little in the last few years. The winter tends to start and end a little later and the summer accordingly.
The rain in Israel is unevenly distributed. Whilst it rains quite heavily in the winter when moving northwards, the southern part of Israel, the Negev, gets very little rain with less than 100 millimeters of average annual rainfall. However the rainy north gets an annual average rainfall of 1,140 mm. Rain in winter is often heavily concentrated in storms causing floods in the Negev area due to the sandy structure in that part of the country. During January and February you can find snowy conditions in the hilly areas of the northernmost parts of Israel and Jerusalem. Mount Hermon has more snowy conditions, usually January until March.
Some parts of Israel are much less cultivable, especially the Negev area with much less annual rainfall. Other parts of Israel that get 300 millimeters of rain and more, are cultivable and the Israel agriculture system is well developed.