The territory of modern Israel has a rich history of early human habitation dating back 1.5 million years. The oldest evidence, found in Ubeidiya near the Sea of Galilee, includes flint tool artifacts, some of the earliest found outside Africa.^[3] Other significant discoveries in the area include the 1.4 million-year-old Acheulean industry artifacts, the Bizat Ruhama group, and tools from Gesher Bnot Yaakov.^[4]

In the Mount Carmel region, notable sites such as el-Tabun and Es Skhul have yielded remains of Neanderthals and early modern humans. These findings demonstrate a continuous human presence in the area for over 600,000 years, spanning from the Lower Paleolithic era to the present day and representing about a million years of human evolution.^[5] Other important Paleolithic sites in Israel include the Qesem and Manot caves. The Skhul and Qafzeh hominids, some of the oldest fossils of anatomically modern humans found outside Africa, lived in northern Israel around 120,000 years ago. The area was also home to the Natufian culture around the 10th millennium BCE, known for its transition from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to early agricultural practices.^[6]