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The use of solar energy began in Israel in the 1950s with the development by Levi Yissar of a solar water heater to address the energy shortages that plagued the new country. By 1967 around 5% of water of households were solar heated and 50,000 solar heaters had been sold. With the 1970s oil crisis, Harry Zvi Tabor developed the prototype of the solar water heater now used in over 90% of Israeli homes. There are over 1.3 million solar water heaters installed as a result of mandatory solar water heating regulations.

Israeli engineers have been at the cutting edge of solar energy technology and its solar companies work on projects around the world. However, even though Israeli engineers have been involved in both photovoltaic and concentrated solar power, the earliest Israeli companies which have become market leaders in their respective fields have all been involved in concentrated solar power. Some notable examples of this are BrightSource, Solel and Brenmiller Energy which all deal with utility scale projects. Additionally, Herzliya based SolarEdge has become a market leader in inverters for non-utility scale photovoltaic solar power.

In 2009, Israel found natural gas reserves within their exclusive economic zone which may reduce urgency of solar development. Solar technology in Israel has advanced to the point where it is almost cost-competitive with fossil fuels. The high annual incidence of sunshine in the Negev Desert has spurred an internationally renowned solar research and development industry. At the end of 2008, a feed-in tariff scheme was approved which has led to many residential and commercial solar energy power station projects.

Israel's objective in 2011 was to produce 10% of the country's energy from renewable sources by 2020, and officials from Cabinet and The Electricity Authority gave the goal in 2023 to produce 30% of the country's energy from renewable sources by 2030.

The use of solar energy began in Israel in the 1950s with the development by Levi Yissar of a solar water heater to address the energy shortages that plagued the new country. By 1967 around 5% of water of households were solar heated and 50,000 solar heaters had been sold. With the 1970s oil crisis, Harry Zvi Tabor developed the prototype of the solar water heater now used in over 90% of Israeli homes. There are over 1.3 million solar water heaters installed as a result of mandatory solar water heating regulations.

Israeli engineers have been at the cutting edge of solar energy technology and its solar companies work on projects around the world. However, even though Israeli engineers have been involved in both photovoltaic and concentrated solar power, the earliest Israeli companies which have become market leaders in their respective fields have all been involved in concentrated solar power. Some notable examples of this are BrightSource, Solel and Brenmiller Energy which all deal with utility scale projects. Additionally, Herzliya based SolarEdge has become a market leader in inverters for non-utility scale photovoltaic solar power.

In 2009, Israel found natural gas reserves within their exclusive economic zone which may reduce urgency of solar development. Solar technology in Israel has advanced to the point where it is almost cost-competitive with fossil fuels. The high annual incidence of sunshine in the Negev Desert has spurred an internationally renowned solar research and development industry. At the end of 2008, a feed-in tariff scheme was approved which has led to many residential and commercial solar energy power station projects.

Israel's objective in 2011 was to produce 10% of the country's energy from renewable sources by 2020, and officials from Cabinet and The Electricity Authority gave the goal in 2023 to produce 30% of the country's energy from renewable sources by 2030.

In 1949, the prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, offered Harry Zvi Tabor a job on the 'physics and engineering desk' of the Research Council of Israel, which he accepted. He created an Israeli national laboratory and created standards amongst the different measurements in use in the country, primarily British, Ottoman and metric. Once the laboratory was established, he focused on solar energy for research and development.

Solar energy was particularly attractive because of the abundance and strength in Israel of the sun's rays and Israel's geographic latitude location is on the 30th parallel north, where the annual incident solar irradiance is 2000 kWh per m². Second, Israel lacks oil, and the conflicts with its neighbors made the procurement of a stable source of energy a national priority. In particular, it is argued that the best defense against missile attack felling the national power grid would be to build a distributed power network, which would mean solar fields of 25–50 megawatts across Israel.

Early in the 1950s, Tabor began to examine why solar installations were inefficient. He eventually devised 'selective black surfaces', which his team at the National Physical Laboratory modified using nickel and chrome methods to blacken metals. These surfaces, which became known as Tabor surfaces, are particularly effective at trapping heat for use in solar water heaters.

Tabor and French immigrant Lucien Bronicki developed a small solar power unit, the Organic Rankine cycle turbine, for use by developing countries with problematic power grids. It was designed to neutralize the maintenance issues of reciprocating engines so it had only one moving part, the rotor. A 3 kWe prototype was exhibited at the 1961 United Nations Conference on New Sources of Energy in Rome, but it failed to find commercial success.

Citing lack of land for ground solar PV parks, Israel mandated in 2023 that all newly constructed commercial buildings install rooftop photovoltaic solar panels.

In 1965, Lucien Bronicki established Ormat Industries to commercialize the Organic Rankine cycle turbine concept. In the 1970s and 1980s Ormat built and operated one of the world's first power stations to produce electricity from solar energy, at Ein Bokek, near the southern part of the Dead Sea in Israel.

The plant used a technology known as the solar pond, a large-scale solar thermal energy collector with integral heat storage for supplying thermal energy. It was the largest operating solar pond ever built for electricity generation and operated until 1988. It had an area of 210,000 m² and produced an electrical output of 5 MW.

During the period of austerity in Israel in the 1950s, there was a fuel shortage, and the government forbade heating water between 10 a.m. and 6 pm. As the situation worsened, engineer Levi Yissar proposed that instead of the construction of more electrical generation plants, homes should switch to solar water heaters. He built a prototype in his home, and in 1953 he started NerYah Company, Israel's first commercial manufacturer of solar water heaters. By 1967 around one in twenty households heated its water with the sun and 50,000 solar heaters had been sold. However, cheap oil from Iran and from oilfields captured in the Six-Day War made Israeli electricity cheaper and the demand for solar heaters dropped. After the energy crisis in the 1970s, in 1980 the Israeli Knesset passed a law requiring the installation of solar water heaters in all new homes except high towers with insufficient roof area. As a result, Israel was in 2007 the world leader in the use of solar energy per capita (3% of the primary national energy consumption).

As of the early 1990s, all new residential buildings were required by the government to install solar water-heating systems, and Israel's National Infrastructure Ministry estimates that solar panels for water-heating satisfy 4% of the country's total energy demand. Israel and Cyprus are the per-capita leaders in the use of solar hot water systems with over 90% of homes using them. The Ministry of National Infrastructures estimates solar water heating saves Israel 2 million barrels (320,000 m³) of oil a year.

On 2 June 2008, the Israeli Public Utility Authority approved a feed-in tariff for solar plants. The tariff is limited to a total installation of 50 MW during 7 years, whichever is reached first, with a maximum of 15 kWp installation for residential and a maximum of 50 kWp for commercial. The National Infrastructures Ministry announced in December 2009 on expanding the feed-in tariff scheme to include medium-sized solar-power stations ranging from 50 kilowatts to 5 megawatts, though only one project had been approved by June 2010.

Multidisciplinary scientists at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology are pooling resources at GTEP to advance the science behind solar power.

Nano science and solar energy

GTEP is working in the field of nano-energy.

• Efrat Lifshitz discovered that nano-sized materials consisting of nanocrystal quantum dots can absorb sunlight not only in the visible range, as materials currently used in solar panels do, but also in the infrared and UV ranges. This makes them ideal in photovoltaic cells used to turn sunlight into electricity, promising much more efficient solar power.
• Nir Tessler leads a group on organic photovoltaic material.
• Gitti Frey specializes in organic electronics – plastic electronics that are functional electronically and optically. They emit light and can transmit electrical signals, or absorb light and generate energy such as electricity. Frey introduces whole new properties in this field, creating effective and useful self-organizing structures on the nano-scale. Frey is working on a solar cell to convert sunlight into electrical energy. She predicts this research will lead to solar-power systems that are cheaper, unbreakable, flexible, better-looking, and versatile.

The National Solar Energy Center was founded in 1987 by the Ministry of National Infrastructures, and is part of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. In 2007, David Faiman, the center's director, announced that the center had entered into a project with Zenith Solar to create a home solar energy system that uses a 10-square meter reflector dish. In testing, the concentrated solar technology proved to be up to five times more efficient than standard flat photovoltaic silicon panels, which would make it almost as cheap as oil and natural gas. A prototype ready for commercialization achieved a concentration of solar energy that was more than 1,000 times greater than that from standard flat panels. According to Faiman, who led the Israeli team that developed the technology, 10% of Israel's population (1,000 megawatts) could live on the energy from 12 square kilometers of land.

The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research facility was founded by Amos Richmond, and its faculty is part of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. It has a solar energy research program that has assisted in the development of passive heating, involving the mitigation of extremes of heat and cold in the desert through efficient storage from day to nighttime. One research project is an inhabited adobe house with prisms that transmit heat during the day and can be rotated to allow the heat to discharge at night installed in the room.

There is a double-skin greenhouse that uses copper sulfate solution as a heat screen during the day. The liquid, pumped between the two skins, protects the interior from ultraviolet rays, and collects heat. At night the liquid is recirculated, returning the heat to the greenhouse.

In addition to a solar reactor, the solar research facilities of the Weizmann Institute of Science are among the most advanced laboratories in the world for concentrated solar energy research. They have tested solar technology in the production of hydrogen fuel, which has been successfully trialled on a large scale. Tareq Abu-Hamed, an Israeli scientist at the University of Minnesota, with colleagues Jacob Karni and Michael Epstein, head of the Solar Facility at Weizmann, were the developers of a new method to produce hydrogen fuel more cheaply, efficiently and safely while solving storage and transportation issues.

Other innovations include harnessing sunlight for space communications and meteorological information; controlling light-dependent chemical reactions; and developing photodynamic cancer therapy.

The Negev Desert and the surrounding area, including the Arava Valley, are the sunniest parts of Israel, and little of this land is arable, which is why it has become the center of the Israeli solar industry. David Faiman thinks the energy needs of Israel's future could be met by building solar energy plants in the Negev. As director of Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center, he operates one of the largest solar dishes in the world.

In May 2016, the 50 MW Zmorot Solar Park came online. The plant has a 207,000-panel solar park and took 18 months to construct.

In the Rotem Industrial Complex outside of Dimona, Israel, more than 1,600 solar mirrors focus the sun's rays on a tower to heat a water boiler to create steam. BrightSource Industries (Israel), Ltd., uses the solar array to test new technology for the three new solar plants to be built in California for Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Southern California Edison.

In 2020, a 120 MW solar power plant opened in Tze'elim, Israel's largest to date. The solar park expected to generate more than 220 GWh annually.

In December 2021, it was announced that Shikun & Binui won a contract to build a 330 MW solar power plant near Dimona, which is expected to become Israel's largest upon its completion in 2023. The solar park will also house a 210 MW energy storage facility.

In May 2023, the Israel Land Authority issued a tender to lease 11,331 hectares (28,000 acres) on land near Shaqib al-Salam between Highways 25 and 40 for a large-scale solar project.

As of September 2023, Israel has two solar-plus-storage projects, with the first being the Arad Valley 1's 17-MW solar farm with an energy storage system of 31 MWh, and the second being Sde Nitzan's 23 MW of solar and 40 MWh of storage capacity project.

In September 2023, solar farms extending 14,000 dunams, or 3,500 acres, near the Israel-Gaza border fence were proposed officially. The total cost of the project is over NIS 4 billion, and the proposal has the potential to produce over 2 GW of electricity. An extensive solar park is also proposed for an underground data center near Eilat as of late 2023.

Israel's first solar power station opened in August 2008. Moshe Tenne built the 50 KW plant on his Negev farm for NIS 1.3 million, and he expects to earn NIS 220,000 a year from selling excess electricity to the national power grid. After the National Infrastructures Ministry announced it would expand its feed-in tariff scheme to include medium-sized solar-power stations ranging from 50 kilowatts to 5 megawatts, Sunday Solar Energy announced that it would invest $133 million in photovoltaic solar arrays for installation on kibbutzim. In December 2008, the Sunday company announced that Kibbutz Reim in the western Negev would be the first community in the world to rely entirely on solar energy. The Reim installation, costing NIS 60–100 million, would generate at least 2.5 megawatts during peak consumption. Excess energy would be sold to the Israel Electric Company. The investment is expected to pay for itself in 10 years, and the costs and revenues will be divided evenly between the kibbutz and Sunday.

In April 2023, it was announced that energy company Teralight would be building one of Israel's largest solar parks, the Ta'anach PV project, in the Jezreel Valley, northern Israel. Ta'anakh solar will have 250  MW of installed capacity and 550 MWh of solar-plus-storage. The 250 MW of installed capacity "is equal to 5.2% of Israel's green energy capacity and 1.2% of its overall electricity capacity." The new solar park can power over 60,000 Israeli households, assisting nearly 250,000 Israelis.

In May 2023, the Israeli government announced it would be building four battery storage power station in the northern Gilboa region, making it one of Israel's largest energy storage projects to date. The initial buildout will total 800 MW/3,200 MWh, and each of the four energy storage facilities will have 200 MW of capacity, and all four will have four hours of storage duration.

Ketura Sun is Israel's first commercial solar field. Built in early 2011 by the Arava Power Company on Kibbutz Ketura, Ketura Sun covers 8.1 hectares (20 acres) and is expected to produce green energy amounting to 4.95 megawatts. The field consists of 18,500 photovoltaic panels made by Suntech, which will produce about 9 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year. In the following twenty years, the field should spare the production of some 125,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. The field was inaugurated on 15 June 2011.

On 22 May 2012, Arava Power Company announced that it had reached financial close on an additional 58.5 MW for 8 projects to be built in the Arava and the Negev valued at 780 million NIS or approximately $204 million. APC President and Co-founder Yosef Abramowitz stated, "Our work is not yet done. Israel needs to adopt the European Union goal of 20 percent renewables by 2020 and this major milestone by Arava Power is proof positive that it can be reached. Furthermore, an injustice must be corrected by creating a special quota of solar fields for Bedouin land owners, who are locked out of the current solar program."

Additionally, the Arava Power Company signed multiple agreements with Bedouin families in the Negev desert to build solar fields on approximately 37 hectares (92 acres) of land, with a production capability of up to 20 megawatts. APC has been lobbying the Israeli government to create separate solar caps for Bedouins.

On 7 February 2012, Arava Power announced that it had received a license for the Tarabin Solar Field, the first solar field for the Bedouin community. Financing for the $30 million Tarabin installation is to be provided by OPIC – the Overseas Private Investment Corporation of the United States Government. Arava Power President Yosef Abramowitz sees solar power for the Bedouin as a positive example for Native Americans, First Nations, Aboriginals and others with historic land claims.

Sunday Solar Energy was commissioned to build a solar installation for the Carmey Avdat winery in the Negev Desert. The 50 kW peak installation covers the 200-square meter roof of the winery and provides 65 percent of its annual energy needs.

The Aora's Solar "Flower" Tower is the world's first solar hybrid power plant, comprising 30 heliostat solar reflectors. The plant switches to natural gas-powered turbines after dark so that it can continue producing power 24 hours a day.

The Ramat Hovav solar field is 37.5 MW project near Ramat Hovav, operational since December 2014. The photovoltaic power plant is owned by Energix Renewable Energies Ltd It was built by the Belectric over a rehabilitated evaporation pond. The facility uses CdTe photovoltaic modules based on thin-film technology, manufactured by U.S. company First Solar, making it the country's largest PV power plant so far and one of the largest of its kind in the Middle East.

The Ashalim power station is a solar power station in the Negev desert near the kibbutz of Ashalim, (south of the district city of Be'er Sheva) in Israel. It had the tallest operating solar power tower in the world since 2019 but will be overtowered by a project in Dubai in late 2021.

As of 2023, Ashalim has two photovoltaic (PV) facilities generating 70MW in total, two thermo-solar power fields generating 120MW, and a fifth 100 MW solar energy plant in planning, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2027.

• Kedma Solar is dedicated to bringing affordable renewable energy to Israelis through the use of solar microgrids.
• SolarEdge is a provider of power optimizer, solar inverter and monitoring solutions for photovoltaic arrays. These products aim to increase energy output through module-level Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT). Established in 2006, the company has offices in the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Israel.
• Solaris Synergy developed a solution, which has been proven in operating water surface installations in Israel and is ready for commercial deployment worldwide.
• Solel has nine fields of solar collectors in the Mojave Desert of California.
• Soltell an advanced solution for operation and management of distributed solar photovoltaic facilities via the use of sensorless technology for Photovoltaic system performance monitoring.
• Zenith Solar pioneered "concentrated solar power", claiming it to be up to five times more efficient than standard PV technology, making it almost as cost as traditional fossil fuels. In December 2013, Zenith Solar was acquired by Suncore Photovoltaics Technology Company Limited, a Chinese-US joint venture that specializes in CPV.

• Arava Power Company was founded in 2006 on Ketura in the Arava Valley. On 5 June 2011, APC inaugurated Israel's first medium-sized solar field, Ketura Sun at 5 MW.
• Israel Cleantech Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in the Israeli clean technology sector.

• List of photovoltaic power stations
• List of solar thermal power stations
• List of power stations in Israel
• Photovoltaic power station
• Renewable energy commercialization
• Energy in Israel

• Quick Guide to Israeli Solar Energy Companies on Green Prophet
• Chromagen dominates the Israeli market in which 85% of the households rely on thermal solar systems for hot water
• Israel Pushes Solar Energy Technology, National Public Radio
• 2007 IEA Annual Report for Israel
• Center for Energy Research

Tel-O-Fun (Hebrew: תל-אופן Tel-Ofan; Arabic: تال أوفين) is a bicycle sharing service which is provided to the city of Tel Aviv, Israel, by the private company FSM Ground Services Ltd. The service's main goal is to reduce motor vehicle traffic within the city. The project also aims to reduce air pollution, create a friendly atmosphere in the city, and encourage physical activity and fitness. The service name in English is a blend of the words "Tel Aviv" and the English word for pleasure "fun", in Hebrew the word "Ofan" (אופן) is wheel which is short for "Ofanayim" (אופניים) – Hebrew for Bicycle.

Ofnidan (Hebrew: אופנידן), or the Greater Tel Aviv Cycle Network, and sometimes transliterated from Hebrew as Ofneidan, is a infrastructure project under construction to establish a network of long-distance bike paths in the Gush Dan, Israel's largest conurbation and metropolitan area. The network will to connect residential areas and employment centers and reduce the use of motorised private transport and the resulting congestion and pollution. The project was first announced in 2015 and the plan originally included more than 145km of segregated bike paths.

The Israel Bike Trail is a trail for mountain bikers in Israel. When complete, the trail will extend over 1,200 kilometers across Israel, like the Israel National Trail, from Eilat to Mount Hermon. It will be composed of 27 segments, passing through Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and the Golan Heights.

In December 2011, the Jewish National Fund opened a 32 kilometer dual-path bike trail that passes through the western portion of the Ben Shemen Forest and continues on through the Modi’in area. In December 2014, eight sections, spanning 400 km from Mitzpe Ramon to Eilat, were open for riding across the Negev desert. As of July 2020, about 400 km have been opened, connecting Arad to Mishor Amiaz and the Sde Boker Seminary to Eilat.

SPNI's education programs reach Israelis of every age and sector - over 50% of Israeli children and teens are involved in SPNI education programs! SPNI believes that by fostering young people's connection to the land, heritage and to their own communities, we grow a generation that gives back to Israel in establishing a strong society, concerned with preserving Israel's natural treasures for all time.

SPNI is probably best known for its network of field schools, established adjacent to Israel's Nature Reserves and National Parks. Tens of thousands of Israelis and tourists participate in SPNI guided hikes and walks focusing on nature study. SPNI's Field School system combines three main areas of activity: education – teaching youth and adults about the region; conservation – protecting the region's natural environment; and research – gathering information about the region in conjunction with SPNI's various departments. Field Schools are an integral part of SPNI's operations, a focal area for local eco-activities, and play a leading role in Israeli environmental tourism and education.

English-language tours are offered by the Jerusalem Bird Observatory.

EcoPeace Middle East, formerly Friends of the Earth Middle East (?–2014), is a regional environmental peacebuilding organization in the Middle East, bringing together Jordanians, Palestinians, and Israelis to create shared solutions for the most water-scarce region on the planet.

EcoPeace Middle East, formerly Friends of the Earth Middle East (?–2014), is a regional environmental peacebuilding organization in the Middle East, bringing together Jordanians, Palestinians, and Israelis to create shared solutions for the most water-scarce region on the planet.

EcoPeace was formed in 1994, bringing together Israelis, Palestinians, Egyptians, and Jordanians in the wake of the Arab-Israeli peace processes of the 1990s. After joining the international Friends of the Earth network, EcoPeace became Friends of the Earth Middle East, but in 2014 it left the network, reverting to the initial name as EcoPeace Middle East.

Hitchhiking in Israel is the practice of hitching a ride in Israel, which was a popular form of transport in previous decades.

Hiking in Israel encompases over 9,656 km (6,000 miles) of trails . In May 2015, Google Street View, in cooperation with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), announced plans to photograph the full length of the 1,100 km (683 mi) Israel National Trail, which was included in the National Geographic feature "World's Best Hikes: Epic Trails".

Transportation in Israel is based mainly on private motor vehicles and bus service and an expanding railway network. A lack of inland waterways and the small size of the country make air and water transport of only minor importance in domestic transportation, but they are vitally important for Israel's international transport links. Demands of population growth, political factors, the Israel Defense Forces, tourism and increased traffic set the pace for all sectors, being a major driver in the mobility transition towards railways and public transit while moving away from motorized road transport.All facets of transportation in Israel are under the supervision of the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety.

Israel's road network spans 18,096 kilometers (11,244 mi) of roads, of which 449 km (279 mi) are classified as freeways. The network spans the whole country.

Route 6, the Trans Israel Highway, starts just east of Haifa down to the outskirts of Beer Sheva, about 200 km (120 mi). Route 1 between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and Route 2 between Tel Aviv and Haifa are well maintained highways.

Tel Aviv has a growing network of bike paths, with more than over 360 kilometers (224 miles) existing or planned. In April 2011, Tel Aviv municipality launched Tel-O-Fun, a bicycle sharing system, in which 150 stations of bicycles for rent were installed within the city limits. Jerusalem has over 125 kilometers (78 miles) of cycleways, either existing or planned.

The National Bike Trail, when completed will take riders from the southern city of Eilat to the border with Lebanon, passing though Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and several other cities.

As of 2021, construction was underway on Ofnidan, a cycle network of seven inter-urban routes connecting the cities of the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area, with some segments already open.

In March 2024, Israel launched a reform intended to encourage use of public transport by decreasing prices. The reform includes a 50% discount to those who live on the periphery and not in places with a high income, to disabled. 33% discount will be given to people in the age of 18-26 so that people get used to move on public transport. Discharged soldiers and those who have completed national service will ride for free during one year. The discount will be given only for a "monthly free" arrangement and not for a ticket for a single trip. As the price of public transport in Israel is relatively low, probably more lines, bus lanes and higher frequency can cause even bigger effect.

Buses are the country's main form of public transport. In 2017, bus passenger trips totaled approximately 740 million. In 2009, 16 companies operated buses for public transport, totaling 5,939 buses and 8,470 drivers. Egged is Israel's largest bus company, and operates routes throughout the country. Bus routes in some areas are operated by smaller carriers, the largest being the Dan Bus Company, operating routes in Gush Dan. Kavim is the next largest.

Bus stations in Israel, other than standalone bus stops, come in two types: terminals (masof, pl. mesofim) and central stations (tahana merkazit). Each terminal serves a number of routes, usually over a dozen, while a central station may serve over a hundred bus routes. The largest central bus terminal in the country is the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, which is also the second largest bus terminal in the world.

On August 5, 2010, the Ministry of Transport opened a website that contained information about public bus and train routes in the country. Previously, information was given only by the individual public transit operators.

Israel has one bus rapid transit system in Haifa, called the Metronit, which consists of three lines connecting Haifa to its suburbs. In addition, there are BRT feeder lines to the Jerusalem Light Rail, running on dedicated bus lanes from Southern Jerusalem to the Northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot crossing the light rail line at the intersection of Jaffa and King George Streets.

Israel also has a share taxi service (Hebrew: שירות, sherut), run by several private companies, depending on location, in addition to regular taxicab services. The shared sherut service usually appears a yellow minivans and travel along the same path as the normal buses with identical route numbers. For a slightly higher price, the shared sherut service allows passengers to both hop on and hop off anywhere along the path of travel. During peak travel, often the time of travel can be shortened as the number of passengers is significantly small compared to normal bus services. Some routes continue to travel through the night and on Shabbat providing transport needs to the population when normal buses services cease. The beginning and end of the sherut vans may differ from the central bus station and on the weekends and evenings, the routes can also be altered for some services. In 2015, share taxis carried 34.7 million passengers, 15.2 million of which were transported on city routes, with the rest going to suburban and inter-city routes.

Taxis, often called "special taxis" (Hebrew: ספיישל) in Israel, to distinguish them from share taxis, are regulated by the Ministry of Transport. Aside from individual taxi companies, Gett is the primary digital taxi hailing service in the country. In 2017, approximately 90 million rides were made using taxis.

• Total: 1,511 km 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) (standard gauge). In 2017 there were over 64 million passenger rides taken.

Many of Israel's railway lines were constructed before the founding of the state during Ottoman and British rule. The first line was the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway, followed by the Jezreel Valley railway, which formed part of the greater Hejaz railway. World War I brought the creation of multiple new lines out of military needs: Portions of what is now the Coastal railway were built simultaneously by the Turkish and British and later merged during the British Mandate. Southern lines were also built by the warring states—from the north by the Ottomans, and from Rafah in the west by the British.

Beginning in the mid-1960s, railway development stagnated, and a number of lines (notably, the Jezreel Valley railway and most of the Eastern railway) were abandoned altogether. Development restarted in the 1990s, the opening of Tel Aviv's Ayalon railway in 1993 signaling a new era of rail development. Lines under construction in the 2000s include the high-speed railway to Jerusalem, an extension of the coastal railway directly from Tel Aviv to Ashdod through the northern Shephelah, and a line from Ashkelon to Beersheba via Sderot, Netivot and Ofakim, as well as a complete reconstruction of the line from Lod to Beersheba. These and other extensive infrastructure improvements led to a 20-fold increase in the number of passengers served by Israel Railways between 1990 and 2015.

After numerous delays due to the complexity of the project, a new line between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem opened in 2019. This line is the first electrified railway ever built in the country. Israel Railways has ordered Bombardier Traxx electric locomotives for use on this line and for other lines to be converted to electric operation. All existing and future electrified mainline railways in Israel use 25 kV 50 Hz overhead electrification.

The 2023 G20 New Delhi summit proposals included a transit corridor connecting India to the Middle East and Europe through Israel which had been part of earlier Israeli plans designed by Israel Katz, a government transit minister.

The 13-kilometre-long Jerusalem Light Rail system began operation in August 2011 and is being extended. The Tel Aviv Light Rail, serving Tel Aviv and surrounding cities, has opened its first line, the Red Line, in August 2023. A significant portion of it is underground, and two other lines are underway, the Green Line and Purple Line. A small portion of the Green Line will be underground while the Purple Line will be entirely above-ground. In addition, the Tel Aviv Metro, a subway system which will serve Tel Aviv and neighboring cities in the Gush Dan area, is planned. It will consist of three lines labelled M1, M2, and M3. The first public opening is expected to occur in 2032.

Haifa's Carmelit, an underground funicular railway, was Israel's first subway line. It is listed in Guinness World Records as the shortest subway system in the world, being the second smallest track network (after the Tünel in Istanbul,) but being the smallest "system" by virtue of being the only urban rail network in the city. The Haifa–Nazareth railway, a planned light rail system from Haifa to Nazareth, which will serve numerous cities and towns along the route, is planned to open in 2025. In August 2023, the construction of the Beersheba Light Rail was approved. The system will serve the city of Beersheba, as well as several towns and a military base near the city. It is expected to be completed in 2033.

The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Israel, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 70 min. 22% of public transit riders, ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 16 min, while 25% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 13.6 km, while 29.% travel for over 12 km in a single direction.

Israel has 47 airports, the largest are Ben Gurion Airport (TLV) located near Tel Aviv, Ramon Airport serving Eilat and Haifa Airport. In 2017, Ben Gurion Airport handled nearly 21 million passengers and was the busiest airport in the Eastern Mediterranean in terms of international passengers served. Non-stop flights from Israel travel to North America, Europe, Africa, the Far East, and neighboring countries in the Middle East. Scheduled domestic air service is available between Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport and Haifa, Rosh Pina, the Golan Heights, and the southern city of Eilat. Some international charter and low cost flights also land at Eilat Ramon Airport. Ramon Airport opened in 2019 20 km north of Eilat replacing the existing Uvda and Eilat airports. While Uvda reverted to its use as a military airbase upon the opening of Ramon Airport, the old Eilat "city" airport was shut down with the land to be redeveloped.

According to the Israel Civil Aviation Authority, as of 2012, Israel's civil aircraft fleet consisted of 59 aircraft; 56 passenger planes, and 3 freighters. 48 of these were Boeing jets, 2 Airbus, 8 turbo-prop produced by ATR, and 1 Embraer jet. Israeli airlines ordered another 2 Embraer jets, 1 ATR airplane, 5 Airbus jets, and 10 Boeing jets, a total of 18 aircraft. It is estimated that Israeli airlines will have 65-70 craft in 2017–2018. Airlines include El Al, Sun D'Or, Arkia and Israir Airlines. Boeing estimates that 60-80 new aircraft will be purchased by Israeli airlines over the next 20 years.

Israel has 29 airports with paved runways, 18 unpaved landing strips, and 3 heliports.

• Ashdod Port
• Haifa Port

On the Gulf of Eilat:

• Eilat Port

• Total: 18 ships (with a tonnage of 1,000 gross tonnage (GT) or over) totaling 716,382 GT/845,053 tonnes deadweight (DWT)
• Ships by type: Cargo ship 1, Chemical tanker 1, Container ship 16 (2006)

Many ships owned and operated by Israeli companies operate under foreign registries. Israel's Zim Integrated Shipping Services is one of the largest shipping companies in the world.

There are six tourist and leisure oriented cable car systems in Israel. These include the cable car in Haifa connecting Bat Galim on the coast to the Stella Maris observation deck and monastery atop Mount Carmel., the cable car in Kiryat Shmona, linking it to Menara 400 meters above the town, the chairlifts and cable cars in the Mount Hermon ski resort in the Golan Heights, the cable car to Masada, near the Dead Sea, enabling tourists to quickly reach the mountain top site, and the cable car at the Rosh HaNikra grottoes site, going down to the chalk cliff and cavernous tunnels on the Mediterranean coast. In addition to that, the Superland amusement park near Rishon LeZion has its own cable car and a public transport-oriented cable car is being developed in Haifa—the Haifa Cable Car.

Additional future plans include a system in western Haifa, and systems in Tiberias, Ma'alot-Tarshiha, Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim.

In 2006, the Segway scooter was approved for use on sidewalks and other pedestrian designated locations, as well as roads that have no sidewalks, obstructed sidewalks or sidewalks lacking curb cuts. The user must be over 16 years old. No license is required. The maximum allowed speed is 13 km/h (8.1 mph), enforced by electronic restriction put in place by the importer. Companies offering tours of Jerusalem use the second generation i2 model, equipped with Lean Steer Technology that facilitates ski-like steering.

• Plug-in electric vehicles in Israel

• Ministry of Transport
• Transport Today and Tomorrow

Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Southern Levant, West Asia. It is bordered by Lebanon and Syria to the north, the West Bank and Jordan to the east, Egypt, the Gaza Strip and the Red Sea to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Tel Aviv is the country's financial, economic, and technological center. Israel's governmental seat is in its proclaimed capital of Jerusalem, though recognition of Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem is limited internationally.

Israel is located in a region known historically as Canaan, Palestine, and the Holy Land. In antiquity, it was home to Canaanite city-states, then the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and is referred to as the Land of Israel in Jewish tradition. Situated at a continental crossroad, the region was then ruled by various empires. Amid European antisemitism, the late 19th century saw the rise of Zionism, which sought a Jewish homeland. British occupation led to the establishment of Mandatory Palestine in 1920. Jewish immigration, combined with British colonial policy, led to intercommunal conflict between Jews and Arabs. The 1947 UN Partition Plan triggered civil war between them.