Palestine

The Palestinian territories combine the limestone hills of the West Bank, the depression of the Jordan valley and the Mediterranean coastal strip of Gaza. The central mountains, with evergreen oak woodland, farming terraces thousands of years old and ancient olive groves, form a cultural landscape that supports Mediterranean wildlife such as the fox, the honey badger, the golden jackal and a rich community of cliff-dwelling birds. To the east, the drop to the Jordan valley is abrupt and within a few kilometres the woodland gives way to steppe and to the Judaean Desert, with deep-cut wadis, springs such as those of Wadi Qelt, and hyraxes and mountain gazelles on the slopes. The whole territory lies beneath the Rift migratory corridor, so in spring and autumn great flows of storks, pelicans and raptors pass overhead. Wadi Gaza is the main coastal wetland.