The Hebrew Bible presents the Canaanites as a relatively homogenous group of pagan tribes who inhabited the Land of Israel and its environs when Abraham first arrived there, and remained until the era of the Davidic monarchy. Based on ancient DNA gathered from 93 different bodies buried at nine separate locations, from a period of over a millennium, scientists have confirmed this portrait. Amanda Borschel-Dan writes:

On Sunday, the IDF killed four guerrillas attempting to plant explosives near one of its observation posts along the border with Syria. The next night, Israeli aircraft retaliated by striking several Syrian military targets. The exchange was one of several in the past two weeks, as Iran-backed militias, Hizballah foremost among them, have been trying to exact revenge on the Jewish state for killing one of their operatives. Meanwhile a large explosion—apparently not caused by Israel—shook Beirut. Benny Avni writes: