Philistia

Philistia refers to the territory inhabited by the Philistines in Canaan, where they maintained a pentapolis comprising the cities of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath. For a time, Philistia also included Jaffa, which may have briefly changed hands with Israel before it was ultimately lost to the Neo-Assyrian Empire during Sennacherib's Levantine campaign. Scholars believe that the Philistines originated from Greek migrant groups of the Aegean civilization that, from roughly 1200 BC onwards, settled in the area and gradually intermixed with the indigenous Canaanite population. In this context, they are also generally identified with the Peleset, who are mentioned in ancient Egyptian records and are hypothesized to have been among the invading Sea Peoples around the Late Bronze Age.