The Israelites (; Bnei Yiśraʾel) were a Semitic people of the Ancient Near East, who inhabited part of Canaan during the tribal and monarchic periods. and lived in the region in smaller numbers after the fall of the monarchy. The prevailing academic opinion today is that the Israelites, who eventually evolved into the modern Jews and Samaritans, were an outgrowth of the indigenous Canaanites who had resided in the area since the 8th millennium BCE.