When did the Israelites end?

AnswerStrictly speaking, the Israelites were the people of Israel, the northern Hebrew kingdome, with its capital at the city of Samaria. Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BCE and many of its citizens sent into exile, where they were gradually absorbed into the local popualtion and disappeared as a separate ethnic group. Others fled as refugees to the much smaller, southern Hebrew kingdom of Judah or, to a lesser extent, to Egypt. Those who fled to Judah were readily absorbed into the local, Judahite population, while the refugees in Egypt in time also identified with the people of Judah.

The people of Judah, the southern Hebrew kingdom, are often referred to by scholars as the Judahites, although The Bible does not make that distinction. From about the time of the Babylonian Exile, they came to be known as Jews.