The father of a Palestinian-American boy in Illinois who was killed in a hate crime on Sunday has criticized the police for the way they delivered the news to him.
Authorities didn't release the victims' identities, but CAIR-Chicago, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, identified the mother as Hanaan Shahin and her 6-year-old son as Wadea Al-Fayoume. The suspect, Joseph Czuba, 71, was the family's landlord and allegedly had a good relationship with the family, the boy's father, Oday Al-Fayoume told the Daily Beast.
On October 7, Hamas led the deadliest Palestinian militant attack on Israel in history. Israel subsequently launched its heaviest-ever airstrikes on Gaza. As of Monday, more than 4,000 people have died in the conflict, according to the Associated Press. The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,670 Palestinians have been killed and 9,600 wounded, while over 1,400 Israelis have been killed, and at least 155 others, including children, have been taken hostage by militants, according to Israel.
The Will County Sheriff's Office (WCSO) said both victims were targeted because they were Muslim. Shahin was stabbed more than a dozen times, and Al-Fayoume was stabbed 26 times. Czuba allegedly entered the apartment on Sunday and began stabbing the family while screaming anti-Muslim vitriol. The young boy died while being transported to the hospital.
Oday Al-Fayoume said the horrific tragedy was revealed to him in only three sentences.
"The way I found out wasn't the right way to tell a parent," Al-Fayoume told the Daily Beast. "I got a call from the police department, and they gave me three sentences exactly: 'Are you Oday Al-Fayoume? Are you Wadea's father? He has been killed.' That's how I found out."
"It all felt like torture," he added.
Newsweek reached out to the WCSO via email for comment.
"Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis," the WCSO said in a statement on Facebook, calling it a "senseless and cowardly act of violence."
Czuba was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of a hate crime, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
The stabbing came just two days after Khaled Mashaal, a former leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas which last weekend launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel, called on Muslims to take to the streets to show their anger about what is happening in Gaza in a "Day of Jihad."
As the Israel-Palestine conflict continues, Muslim and Jewish families across the world are feeling the fatal impacts. On Friday, a teacher was stabbed to death in France after the suspect allegedly shouted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great" while conducting the stabbing. Two Jewish schools closed in London out of an abundance of caution after seeing a rise in antisemitic attacks in the United Kingdom.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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