Israel executes the air strike Operation Orchard to destroy a nuclear reactor in Syria.
Operation Outside the Box (Hebrew: , Mivtza MiHutz LaKufsa), also known as Operation Orchard (Hebrew: , Mivtza Bustan), was an Israeli airstrike on a suspected nuclear reactor, referred to as the Al Kibar site (also referred to in IAEA documents as Dair Alzour), in the Deir ez-Zor region of Syria, which occurred just after midnight (local time) on 6 September 2007. The Israeli and U.S. governments did not announce the secret raids for seven months. The White House and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) subsequently confirmed that American intelligence had also indicated the site was a nuclear facility with a military purpose, though Syria denies this. A 2009 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) investigation reported evidence of uranium and graphite and concluded that the site bore features resembling an undeclared nuclear reactor. IAEA was initially unable to confirm or deny the nature of the site because, according to IAEA, Syria failed to provide necessary cooperation with the IAEA investigation. Syria has disputed these claims. Nearly four years later, in April 2011 during the Syrian Civil War, the IAEA officially confirmed that the site was a nuclear reactor. Israel did not acknowledge the attack until 2018.The attack reportedly followed Israeli top-level consultations with the Bush Administration. After realizing that the US was not willing to bomb the site after being told so by U.S. President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to adhere to the 1981 Begin Doctrine and unilaterally strike to prevent a Syrian nuclear weapons capability, despite serious concerns about Syrian retaliation. In stark contrast to the doctrine's prior usage against Iraq, the airstrike against Syria did not elicit international outcry. A main reason is that Israel maintained total and complete silence regarding the attack, and Syria covered up its activities at the site and did not cooperate fully with the IAEA. The international silence may have been a tacit recognition of the inevitability of preemptive attacks on "clandestine nuclear programs in their early stages." If true, the Begin Doctrine has undoubtedly played a role in shaping this global perception.According to official government confirmation on 21 March 2018, the raid was carried out by Israeli Air Force (IAF) 69 Squadron F-15Is, and 119 Squadron and 253 Squadron F-16Is, and an ELINT aircraft; as many as eight aircraft participated and at least four of these crossed into Syrian airspace. The fighters were equipped with AGM-65 Maverick missiles, 500-pound (230 kg) bombs, and external fuel tanks. One report stated that a team of elite Israeli Shaldag special-forces commandos arrived at the site the day before so that they could highlight the target with laser designators, while a later report identified Sayeret Matkal special-forces commandos as involved.The Israeli attack used sophisticated electronic warfare capabilities, as IAF electronic warfare (EW) systems took over Syria's air defense systems, feeding them a false sky-picture for the entire period of time that the Israeli fighter jets needed to cross Syria, bomb their target and return.On 6 March 2017, the Kibar nuclear site was captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces a U.S.-backed coalition of Kurdish and Arab militia fighters from a retreating ISIL force in northern Deir Ezzor province.
Israel (; Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל, romanized: Yīsrāʾēl; Arabic: إِسْرَائِيل, romanized: ʾIsrāʾīl), officially the State of Israel (מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل, Dawlat ʾIsrāʾīl), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea, and shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, and Egypt to the southwest; it is also bordered by the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to the east and west, respectively. Tel Aviv is the economic and technological center of the country, while its seat of government is in its proclaimed capital of Jerusalem, although Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem is unrecognized internationally.Israel has evidence of the earliest hominid migrations out of Africa. Canaanite tribes are archaeologically attested in the region since the Middle Bronze Age, while the kingdoms of Israel and Judah emerged during the Iron Age. The northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE, and the Kingdom of Judah was incorporated into the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. Some of the Judean population was exiled to Babylon, only to return after Cyrus the Great conquered the region. The Maccabean Revolt against Seleucid rule led to an independent Hasmonean kingdom by 110 BCE. The kingdom became a client state of the Roman Republic in 63 BCE, following which the Herodian dynasty was installed by 37 BCE, and in 6 CE, the former kingdom was finally incorporated into the Roman Empire as the province of Judaea (Latin: Iudaea). A series of unsuccessful Jewish revolts against the Romans that broke out during the first and second centuries resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem, the expulsion of many Jews, and the renaming of Iudaea to Syria Palaestina. In the 7th century CE, the Byzantine-ruled Levant was taken by Arab forces and incorporated into the Rashidun Caliphate. It remained in Muslim hands until the First Crusade of 1096–1099 re-established a Christian sovereign presence; Crusader control was partly dismantled by the Ayyubids in 1187, but ultimately lasted until 1291. The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt extended its control over the region by the end of the 13th century until its defeat in 1516 to the Ottoman Empire. During the 19th century, a national awakening among Jews led to the founding of Zionism, a movement that espouses the return of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, also known as the Land of Israel, which was followed by the immigration of diaspora Jews.
Following World War I, Britain controlled the entirety of the territory of what makes up Israel, the Palestinian territories, and Jordan as a League of Nations mandate. After World War II, the newly formed United Nations adopted the Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947, recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states, and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency but rejected by Arab leaders. Following a civil war within Mandatory Palestine between Yishuv and Palestinian Arab forces, Israel declared independence at the termination of the British Mandate. The war internationalized into the 1948 Arab–Israeli War between Israel and several surrounding Arab states and concluded with the 1949 Armistice Agreements that saw Israel in control of most of the former mandate territory, while the West Bank and Gaza were held by Jordan and Egypt respectively. Israel has since fought several wars with Arab countries, and since the Six-Day War in June 1967 has occupied several territories, and continues to occupy the Golan Heights and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, though whether Gaza remains occupied following the Israeli disengagement is disputed. Israel has effectively annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, though these actions have been rejected as illegal by the international community, and established settlements within the occupied territories, which the international community also considers illegal under international law. Efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in a final peace agreement, while Israel has signed peace treaties with both Egypt and Jordan, and more recently has normalized relations with a number of other Arab countries.
In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish and democratic state, and as the nation-state of the Jewish people. The country is a liberal democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation, and universal suffrage. The prime minister serves as head of government and the Knesset is the unicameral legislature. Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, and has a population of over 9 million people as of 2021. It has the world's 31st-largest economy by nominal GDP, and is the most developed country that is currently in conflict. The standard of living in Israel is the highest in the Middle East, and the country ranks high on the global HDI list. Israel also ranks among the world's top countries by percentage of citizens with military training, percentage of citizens holding a tertiary education degree, research and development spending by GDP percentage, women's safety, life expectancy, innovativeness, and happiness.