NewsTracker Answers for week of July 14, 2014

Q: The death toll continued to rise from Israeli air strikes on Gaza, Palestinian sources say, as militants kept firing rockets at Israel. Where is Gaza?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Israeli air strikes in Gaza targeted rocket launchers, political leaders and smuggling tunnels on Gaza's southwest border with . . .

A. Egypt

B. Jordan

C. Syria

D. Saudi Arabia


A. Gaza borders Egypt on the southwest, the Mediterranean Sea on northwest and Israel on the northeast and southeast. Israel has blockaded Gaza's coast and restricts what can be imported into Gaza along its land borders. Gaza has turned to smuggling many goods and weapons from Egypt.


Q: Israel seized and occupied Gaza during the Six-Day War in 1967. Who did Israel fight in that war?

A. Egypt

B. Jordan

C. Syria

D. All of the above


D. Israel fought all of its Arab neighbors during the war, seizing territory from Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Egypt had controlled Gaza before war and the West Bank was part of Jordan. Under terms of a 1994 agreement, the Palestinian Authority took over administration of the two areas.


Q: Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas took control of the area in 2007. Which of these nations does NOT consider Hamas a terrorist organization?

A. Canada

B. Egypt

C. China

D. Japan


C. China does not designate Hamas to be a terrorist organization and says Hamas is the legitimately elected political entity in the Gaza Strip. On the other hand, Egypt branded Hamas a terrorist organization this year, accusing it of helping al Qaeda-inspired insurgents in Egypt's Sinai peninsula.


Q: Gaza is a small area, slightly more than twice the size of Washington, D.C. Which small nation is smaller than Gaza?

A. Andorra

B. Malta

C. Singapore

D. All of the above


B. Gaza's 223 square miles are just a bit larger than the Mediterranean island nation of Malta's 196 square miles. The tiny European principality of Andorra and the southeast Asia city-state of Singapore are larger.