When Hamas-led militants sprang from Gaza last year, leaving 1,200 people dead in southern Israel and 250 more held hostage in the enclave, it set off a chain of events that has moved the Middle ...

Area: 22,000 sq km. Population: 9.5m. Prime minister: Binyamin Netanyahu. The State of Israel, founded as a homeland for Jewish people in 1948, is the strongest military power in the Middle East ...