There are several sources for information about the early history of the Jewish people. The Jewish scriptures (Old Testament) are one of these sources. It is an important source for two reasons. On one hand, it contains accounts of events than can be verified through other sources, as described below. On the other hand, whatever it teaches about the beginnings of the Jewish people influenced later history. For example, those who believed that the Hebrews had worshiped only one deity from the time of Abraham shaped the development of Judaism into a monotheistic faith. If an alternate view, such as that Yahweh was originally only one of many gods, had prevailed, the Jewish people might have been less determined to maintain their religious independence against Greek and Roman influence.
Other sources of information are mentions of the Jewish people in the literature or histories of surrounding nations such as Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Some of these sources confirm events described in the Jewish Scriptures, while others either contradict or ignore them. For example, no Egyptian source describes the plagues of Exodus.
A third source of information is archaeology. Scientists may locate ancient buildings, artifacts, and inscriptions that match locations named in the Jewish scriptures, or they may find relics that do not match any scriptural description. Further, archaeologists may use the scriptures as a guide to locations at which they expect to make important discoveries.
In summary, it would be very difficult to understand the history of the Jewish people without having studied their own beliefs about their origins and history as described in their scriptures.
Many Jews and Christians see the Bible as the irrefutable word of God. On the other side of the spectrum, there are plenty of people who see the Bible as a fabrication that has little historical validity. This is one of the reasons that it can be a challenge to use the Bible as a credible historical source. There is little in the form of physical evidence that corroborates the claims the Bible makes, but nonetheless there is evidence in some instances, so some believe that that is proof enough for all. Basically you can talk yourself in circles all day on whether or not the Bible is a credible source but people will have differing opinions and because it is a topic of religion they will not budge.
Now to answer the first question, why it is important to study the Bible to understand early Jewish history? There are a few reasons for this I will lightly touch on. The first reason is that in order to understand any culture, it is important to understand their religion. It is necessary to see the world from their point of view to be able to fully understand the decisions they made. Another reason is that there is evidence of some of the battles and other events that took place and there are, to my knowledge, no other known accounts of many of these events. The last reason, which ties back to the first, is to understand why the Jews claim Israel. This is important in modern and early history, but to truly understand their culture you must understand this. The reason is Biblical.
For a synopsis of the timeline of the Old Testament:
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ancient-jewish-religion-and-culture/
Judaism does not acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Messiah; therefore, the New Testament of the Bible holds little weight in Jewish culture. However, the Bible is not only comprised of the New Testament gospel and following books. The first "half" of the book is the Old Testament, and it is the story of the Israelites and the nation's earliest struggles. The Old Testament contains the history of men like Abraham and Jacob, and the people of Israel are descendants of those men. Exodus contains the story of Moses and how he got Israel out of slavery. This book also has information about the 10 Commandments and many other Jewish laws. In fact, the first five books of the Bible are supremely important to Judaism. These are called the Torah. Regardless of whether or not a person believes the Bible to be true, the Torah is supremely important to Jews; therefore, knowing what it contains helps a person better understand Jewish people, their history, and their culture.
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