NewsTracker Answers for week of May 17, 2021

Q: At least 188 people, including 55 children, were killed by Israeli bombs and shells last week in Gaza, as thousands of rockets fired from the territory killed at least eight Israelis. Where is the Gaza Strip?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Gaza’s nearly 2 million people have been mostly locked inside the territory after the Hamas militant group, which does not accept Israel’s right to exist, took control of the strip in 2006 and it was later blockaded by Israel and what other nation bordering Gaza?

A. Egypt

B. Jordan

C. Lebanon

D. Syria


A. Egypt occupied Gaza before Israel seized it in the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Israel’s northern Arab neighbor Lebanon did not participate in the war in any significant way. Israel removed all troops and settlements from Gaza in 2005, but it is still considered an occupying power because it controls air, sea and most land access.


Q: Half of Gaza’s people are 18 yeas old and younger, and it is the fifth most densely populated areas in the world with 14,089 people per square mile. What is the world’s most densely populated territory?

A. Maldives

B. Malta

C. Macau

D. Monaco


C. A gambling center and Special Administrative Region of China, Macau has 58,370 people per square mile, according to the latest population estimates and area measurements from the CIA World Factbook. In comparison, the United States has an average of about 95 people for every square mile of land.


Q: While heavy weapons were concentrated in the Gaza conflict, fighting between Arabic and Jewish mobs spread in Israel and the West Bank. Like Gaza, the West Bank …

A. Was occupied by Israel in 1967

B. Is part of the State of Palestine

C. Was occupied by an Arab neighbor

D. All of the above


D. In 1947, he United Nations divided land ruled by the British into the State of Palestine and the State of Israel. After the new state of Israel fought its Arab neighbors in 1948, Palestine’s Gaza and the West Bank were occupied by Egypt and Jordan. They were taken by Israel in 1967. The UN still recognizes Palestine as a sovereign state although it has never existed as an independent nation.


Q: This latest round of violence appeared to be triggered by moves to evict Palestinians from their homes to make way for Israeli settlers in which city?

A. Gaza City

B. Jerusalem

C. Ramallah

D. Tel Aviv


B. The eviction of six Palestinian families from homes in Jerusalem ignited tensions in a city which is sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and also was to be the capital of Palestine under the 1947 UN plan. Any “two-state” peace plan has been complicated by Israeli settlers taking over large areas of the West Bank since 1967.