page_title: Geography of Israel
section_title: Rural settlements
hierarchical_section_title: Geography of Israel / Rural settlements
caption_attribution_description: Kibbutz Lotan, Israel
context_page_description: The geography of Israel is very diverse, with desert conditions in the south, and snow-capped mountains in the north. Israel is located at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea in Western Asia. It is bounded to the north by Lebanon, the northeast by Syria, the east by Jordan and the West Bank, and to the southwest by Egypt. To the west of Israel is the Mediterranean Sea, which makes up the majority of Israel's 273 km coastline, and the Gaza Strip. Israel has a small coastline on the Red Sea in the south.
  Israel's area is approximately 20,770 km², which includes 445 km² of inland water. Israel stretches 424 km from north to south, and its width ranges from 114 km to, at its narrowest point, 15 km. It has an Exclusive Economic Zone of 26,352 km².
  The Israeli-occupied territories include the West Bank, 5,879 km², East Jerusalem, 70 km² and the Golan Heights, 1,150 km². Geographical features in these territories will be noted as such. Of these areas, Israel has annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, an act not recognized by the international community.
context_section_description: Israel's rural space includes several unique kinds of settlements, notably the moshav and the kibbutz. Originally these were collective and cooperative settlements respectively. Over time, the degree of cooperation in these settlements has decreased and in several of them the cooperative structure has been dismantled altogether. All rural settlements and many small towns (some of which are dubbed "rurban settlements") are incorporated in regional councils. Land use in Israel is 17% arable land, 4% permanent crops, and 79% other uses. As of 2003 1,940 square kilometers (749 sq mi) were irrigated.
  There are 242 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites in the West Bank, 42 in the Golan Heights, and 29 in East Jerusalem.
caption: View of Kibbutz Lotan
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