Philistines, Pleshet or Peleset, are a people who live in the southern coast of Canaan at the beginning of the Iron Age (circa 1175 BCE).

According to the Bible, they ruled the five city-states (the "Philistine Pentapolis") of Gaza, Askelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath, from the Wadi Gaza in the south to the Yarqon River in the north, but with no fixed border to the east.

The Bible paints them as Israel's most dangerous enemy.

Their total population after the arrival of immigrants is around 25,000 in the 12th century BCE (immediately after the migration), rising to a peak of 30,000 in the 11th century BC; the Aegean element is not more than half the total, and perhaps much less.

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