5 vital stories to know this week [5/12]

Israel will invade Rafah, despite President Biden threatening to cut off supplying weapons for their siege of Gaza. Here are five things you need to know this week.

Israel invades Rafah where millions of displaced Palestinians are sheltered—mainly children—despite Hamas agreeing to a ceasefire

Israel has begun its ground invasion of the city of Rafah, where millions of displaced Palestinians were told to move by Israeli officials when the Israel-Hamas war first started. The move came hours after Hamas accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, which would have released all of the Israeli hostages kidnapped by the militant group, freed a select number of Palestinians from Israeli prisons, and helped rebuild Gaza along with implementing a ceasefire.

“Rafah is now a city of children, who have nowhere safe to go in Gaza. If large-scale military operations start, not only will children be at risk from the violence, but also from chaos and panic, and at a time when their physical and mental states are already weakened,” the UN said. 

Context: Israeli officials told ABC News last Saturday that it would not accept any ceasefire deal even with the release of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas.

Biden says he will stop sending bombs and artillery shells to Israel if it launches major invasion of Rafah

President Biden told CNN that he would cut off some weapon sales to Israel if it moves forward with a full-scale assault on Rafah, where more than 1 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering. The threat, which marked the administration's most drastic shift towards Israel, would still supply Israel weapons for its defense, such as the Iron Dome rocket interceptor but if Israel goes into Rafah, “[The U.S] is not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used,” Biden said.

Biden also acknowledged for the first time that US-made weapons have killed innocent Palestinians. 

Florida deputies fatally shoot US airman after bursting into the wrong apartment, attorney says

Police responding to a disturbance call burst into the wrong apartment and fatally shot a Black U.S. Air Force airman who was home alone and was armed with a gun, an attorney for the man’s family said. 

Deputies responding to a disturbance call at a Florida apartment complex burst into the wrong unit and fatally shot a Black U.S. Air Force airman who was home alone when they saw he was armed with a gun, according to Ben Crump, the attorney for the man’s family said Wednesday.

According to Crump, Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, who was based at the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, was alone in his apartment when he heard a knock at the door. He asked who was there but didn’t get a response. A few minutes later, Fortson heard a louder knock but didn’t see anyone when he looked through the peephole. Later, Fortson was concerned and went to retrieve his gun, which Crump said was legally owned.

As Fortson walked back through his living room, deputies burst through the door, saw that Fortson was armed and shot him six times, according to Crump. Fortson was on the ground, saying, “I can’t breathe,” after he was shot, Crump said.

Fortson died at a hospital, officials said. The deputy involved in the shooting was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

Over 20 GOP-led states sue Biden administration over Title IX rules for LGBTQ students

Nearly two dozen GOP-led states have voiced their opposition to the Biden administration's new Title IX regulations, which now protect students from sex and gender-based harassment and discrimination. Among other provisions, the new rules would prohibit schools from barring transgender students from using the bathrooms, changing facilities, and pronouns that correspond with gender identities.

Context: Title IX was created in 1972 to prevent sex-based discrimination and sexual harassment in educational programs and activities funded by the federal government.

Study finds 99% of pro-Palestine protests at US universities are peaceful

A new Report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data found that nearly 99% of pro-Palestinian been peaceful, despite remarks from U.S. politicians criticizing the protests for causing destruction, including President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

"While some notable violent clashes have recently taken place, such as on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, where demonstrators and counter-demonstrators fought at a student encampment overnight on 30 April, the overwhelming majority of student protests since October — 99% — have remained peaceful," the report said.

The report also showed that student-led pro-Palestine demonstrations in the U.S. or “student spring,” have almost tripled from April 1 to April 26.