NewsTracker Answers for week of Feb. 19, 2024

Q: Egypt is building a wall and is leveling land near its border with the Gaza Strip as Israel plans an offensive on the border city of Rafah, according to satellite images and video. Egypt declined to discuss the construction, but it has warned Israel not to forcibly expel the more than 1 million displaced Palestinians now in Rafah into its territory. Where is Egypt?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Israel’s defense chief said there are no plans to push Gaza’s Palestinians into Egypt because it could threaten the nations’ peace agreement. Egypt was the first Arab nation with ties to Israel. What was the last Arab nation to establish diplomatic ties with Israel?

A. Bahrain

B. Jordan

C. Morocco

D. United Arab Emirates

C. Morocco established diplomatic ties with Israel in December 2020 following the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in September 2020, Jordan in October 1994, and Egypt in January 1980. Israel and Sudan agreed to establish ties in 2020, but formal relations have been held up by Sudan’s civil war.

Q: Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world with more than 2 million people crowded into 139 square miles. That is about the same area as which U.S. city?

A. Bunnell, Florida

B. Detroit, Michigan

C. Mobile, Alabama

D. All of the above

D. Each of the cities is about 139 square miles, but have far fewer people than the Gaza Strip. Bunnell has only 3,276 people. Mobile has a population of 187,041. Detroit has 639,111 people. About 70 percent of Gaza’s people are descended from Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes in the 1947-1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Q: Gaza’s boundaries were set at the end of the 1948 war when it was controlled by troops from which nation?

A. Egypt

B. Israel

C. Jordan

A. Egyptian troops controlled the area filled with Palestinian refugees during and after the first Arab-Isareli war in 1948. Israel occupied Gaza in 1956-1957 after the second Arab-Israeli war. It returned to Egyptian control until 1967 when Israel occupied the area again. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005,

Q: What part of Egypt borders both the Gaza Strip and Israel?

A. Nile Delta

B. Sinai Peninsula

C. Suez Canal

D. Western Desert

B. The Sinai Peninsula is the only part of Egypt located in Asia. It is separated from the African continent and the rest of Egypt by the Red Sea, the Gulf of Suez, and the Suez Canal.