It's pretty clear/common, although I don't know so much about this one in particular. Presumably, it was a Nazi weapon during WW2 (although probably not front line), and, like a lot of the other weapons, survived the war.
Israel was desperate for weapons post-WW2 (before and after western countries recognized it as a state). They bought a lot of WW2 surplus. Financial constraints, as well as arms embargoes. So, they ended up with this rifle, and were quite practical. They converted it to .308, issued it to a soldier, who put his name on the stock. Israel eventually upgraded again, and the rifle was sold surplus, and a few years ago it was on Gunbroker and I bought it (2009). Apparently Israeli fighters were told "it's up to you if you want to scratch off the swastika marks on the old proofs"; I suspect most of them either didn't care, or appreciated the irony that the Nazis had lost and now Israelis were using their weapons to defend themselves in Israel.
I also have an M1 Garand (US rifle during WW2) which was later sold to the Italians who converted it to .308, and I bought it -- it is a far nicer weapon, and about 10x the price of the Mauser, but roughly the same path -- war surplus reused by another military and then sold again as surplus.
(I wanted both kinds of guns, and specifically was looking for .308, since I try to only stock .22lr, .38/357, 9mm, 12ga, .45acp, 5.56mm, 7.62x51mm, .300winmag, .338 Lapua Magnum ammo.)
There are still plenty of WW2 (and even WW1, I think) surplus rifles for sale by the US Government to civilians in the US (odcmp.com). In WW2 they made a lot of weapons.