NewsTracker Answers for week of Apr 13, 2026

Q: Israel drastically stepped up its attacks on Lebanon last week, just hours after the start of a fragile ceasefire between Iran and the United States. One 10-minute bombing raid on the capital, Beirut, killed more than 300 people and injured more than 1,500. Where is Lebanon, Israel’s northern neighbor?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Israeli and Lebanese officials planned to meet in the United States this week for historic direct talks. Israel’s main target is Hezbollah, a militia of which religious group in Lebanon?

A. Christian

B. Druze

C. Shia Muslim

D. Sunni Muslim

C. Iran helped create the Shia Islamist political party and militia in 1982 after an Israeli invasion of Lebanon. By 2016, Hezbollah’s armed strength was assessed to be equivalent to that of a medium-sized army. Lebanon’s government outlawed the group this year but struggles to control a country that is 32.4% Christian, 31.9% Sunni, 31.2% Shia, and 4.5% Druze.

Q: Hezbollah is considered a proxy for Iran in fighting Israel. After Israel and the United States began bombing Iran on Feb. 28, Hezbollah fired missiles and drones at Israeli targets. Israel responded with airstrikes, one of which killed four members of a family in southern Lebanon on March 5. Those deaths triggered violence in which American state?

A. California

B. Michigan

C. New York

D. Texas

B. Naturalized U.S. citizen Ayman Mohamed Ghazali, whose brothers were killed in that airstrike, rammed his pickup truck into Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, on March 12. He opened fire with a rifle before killing himself. A synagogue guard was injured in the attack, which also started a fire. Michigan has a large Arabic community.

Q: Lebanon and Israel had relatively calm relations until the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) moved to Lebanon in 1971 after being kicked out of what nation on Israel’s eastern border?

A. Egypt

B. Iraq

C. Jordan

D. Syria

C. Jordan’s king forced the PLO to leave his country after leftist groups within the organization began calling for the overthrow of the Jordanian monarchy. After relocating to Lebanon, the PLO attacked northern Israel and helped start the Lebanese Civil War. Israel borders Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, and Egypt to the south.

Q: Some Lebanese cities are the oldest in the world, continuously occupied for more than 5,000 years. And, the land has been ruled by countless invaders and empires. Who established the borders of modern Lebanon after World War I?

A. British

B. French

C. Greeks

D. Turks

B. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, France took over what is now Syria and Lebanon, while Britain took over what is now Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. The French agreed to establish borders for a religiously diverse country that was proposed by a Lebanese delegation headed by a Maronite Christian patriarch.