On December 21, 1995, Israeli troops withdrew from Bethlehem, and three days later the city came under the complete administration and military control of the Palestinian National Authority in conformance with the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1995.

In June 2009, the US National Public Radio ( NPR ), relying on information obtained from the CIA World Factbook, put the number of Israeli Jews living in settlements in the West Bank and Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem at 250, 000.

The world's lowest road, Highway 90, runs along the Israeli and West Bank shores of the Dead Sea at below sea level.

The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall.

Under the plan, all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip ( and four in the West Bank ) and the joint Israeli-Palestinian Erez Industrial Zone were dismantled with the removal of all 9, 000 Israeli settlers ( most of them in the Gush Katif settlement area in the Strip's southwest ) and military bases.

In 2003, the Israeli government issued a plan for total withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the northern West Bank by late 2005.

In January 2010, King Abdullah of Jordan, after a meeting with the Israeli president Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum in Davos, declared that his country does not want to rule the West Bank and that " the two-state solution " to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the only viable option.

For example, whilst the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics defines the area of Israel to include the annexed East Jerusalem and Golan Heights and to exclude the militarily controlled regions of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, it defines the population of Israel to also include Israeli settlers living in the West Bank.

The situation is further complicated by the Israeli West Bank barrier, which has separated certain parts of the West Bank such that they have become contiguous with sovereign Israel.

Map of Israeli settlements ( magenta ) in the West Bank as of 2006

Israel dismantled 18 settlements in the Sinai Peninsula in 1982, and all 21 in the Gaza Strip and 4 in the West Bank in 2005, but continues to both expand its settlements and settle new areas in the West Bank in spite of the Oslo Accords which barred both Israeli and Palestinians from undertaking unilateral actions that would alter the status quo.

The last new West Bank settlement to be authorised by the Israeli government was in 1999.

However, Israel has settled hundreds of thousands of its citizens in various Israeli controlled settlements in the West Bank.

Between 1950 and the Six Day War in 1967, although not widely recognized, Jordan claimed and administered an additional 5, 880 square kilometers encompassing the West Bank ; in 1988 and with continuing Israeli occupation, King Hussein relinquished Jordan's claim to the West Bank in favor of the Palestinians.

The city is in an enclave of the Jordan Valley that is in Area A of the West Bank, while the surrounding area is designated as being in Area C under full Israeli military control.

* Judean Mountains, modern Israeli name for the mountains around Jerusalem, politically divided between Israel and the Occupied West Bank

* Judea and Samaria, official Israeli name for the West Bank

In 2007, Loach was one of more than 100 artists and writers who signed an open letter initiated by Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism and the South West Asian, North African Bay Area Queers ( SWANABAQ ) and calling on the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival " to honour calls for an international boycott of Israeli political and cultural institutions, by discontinuing Israeli consulate sponsorship of the LGBT film festival and not co-sponsoring events with the Israeli consulate.

In May 2012, Patinkin delivered the opening speech at the " Annual Convention of the Israeli Left ", where he recounted his experiences during a visit to the West Bank with members of the " breaking the silence " organization.

Between 1994 and 1996, Israel built the Israeli Gaza Strip barrier to improve security in Israel.

The resolution opposed to the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier, regardless of its location, and opposed the United States government making monetary contribution to the construction.

As a result of the significant increase of suicide bombing attacks within Israeli population centers during the first years of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, in June 2002 Israel began the construction of the West Bank Fence along the Green Line border arguing that the barrier is necessary to protect Israeli civilians from Palestinian terrorism.

Israeli West Bank barrier near Ramallah

The Israeli West Bank barrier has furthered Ramallah's isolation.

* Israel's limiting of trade relations and blockades with the Gaza Strip, the International Community's suspension of aid following the election of a Hamas-led government and the erection of the Israeli West Bank barrier might constitute a siege.

In Straddling the Fence ( 2003 ), he visited the West Bank and spoke to Israelis and Palestinians about the Israeli West Bank barrier and its impact on their lives.

Within days Israeli journalists were allowed into Cairo, breaking a symbolic barrier, and from there the peace process quickly gained momentum.

This new party supported unilateral disengagement from most of the West Bank and the fixing of borders by the Israeli West Bank barrier.

According to the current route, 8. 5 percent of the West Bank territory and 27, 520 Palestinians are on the " Israeli " side of the barrier.

This originated with its success with Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles, and following the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier.

Shinui strongly supported the Israeli West Bank barrier and the disengagement plan.

Since 2004 and the construction of Israeli West Bank barrier number of attacks decreased significantly in Netanya as in other major cities.

Unlike some others in the Israeli peace movement, he does not oppose ( and in 1991 advocated ) the construction of an Israeli West Bank barrier, but believes that it should be roughly along the Green Line, the pre-1967 border.

* Supporting the Israeli West Bank barrier, on condition that it will include the major settlement blocks in the West Bank.

The planned route of the separation barrier has raised much criticism, with the Israeli Supreme Court ruling that certain sections of the barrier ( including East Jerusalem sections ) must be re-routed.

Prime Minister of Israel | Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, President of Egypt | Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and President of the United States | U. S. President Jimmy Carter at Camp David in 1978

File: Dead Sea-14. jpg | Israeli highway beside the Dead Sea

Central Intelligence Agency | CIA remote sensing map of Greater Jerusalem, showing Israeli settlements, Palestinian refugee camps, fences, walls, etc.

Image: Menora_vor_der_Knesset. jpg | The Knesset Menorah outside the Knesset ( Israeli Parliament ).

One modern theory is that Israeli Hebrew's phonology reflects Yiddish elements, not Semitic languages | Semitic ones.

Unit 8200 ( the SIGINT unit of Intelligence Corps ( Israel ) | the Israeli Intelligence Corps ) base on Mount Avital, Golan Heights

Prime Minister of Israel | Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, President of the United States | United States President Bill Clinton, and Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO ) Chairman Yasser Arafat during the signing of the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993.

Clockwise, from left: United Nations soldiers during the Korean War, which was the first UN authorized conflict ; Two atomic explosions from the RDS-37 and Operation Upshot-Knothole | Upshot-Knothole ( Soviet and American, respectively ) nuclear weapons, symbolizing the escalation of Cold War tensions between the two nations in the 1950s ; Israeli troops prepare to fight the Egypt ians during the Suez Crisis of 1956 ; A replica of Sputnik I, the world's first satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957 ; Fidel Castro leads the Cuban Revolution in 1959 ; North Sea flood of 1953

SPYDER anti-aircraft missile system developed by the Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems | Rafael, fitted atop a TATRA truck.

M60 Patton | M60A1 Patton tank with Israeli Blazer ERA.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( Israel ) | Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

Flag of India | Indian and Flag of Israel | Israeli flag s in New Delhi during Ariel Sharon's visit, September 2003.

The Israeli Air Force | Israeli and Italian Air Force s conclude an extensive, two-week joint exercise in Sardinia, 17 November 2010.

Israeli sufganiyah | sufganiyot in a wide variety of toppings at a bakery in Tel Aviv, Israel

Abba Eban ( center ) with Israeli PM David Ben-Gurion and U. S. President Harry S Truman | Harry Truman ( 1951 )

Israeli PM David Ben-Gurion ( center ) giving a Hanukkah Menorah ( Hanukkah ) | Menorah as a gift to U. S. President Truman in the Oval Office.

" Abraham and Issac ", by Israelis | Israeli artist Adi Ness

Israeli naval personnel celebrate their victory after an engagement with Egyptian naval forces near Battle of Rumani Coast | Rumani.