A six-year-old Palestinian Muslim boy was fatally stabbed and his mother seriously injured when their landlord entered their home with a 12-inch military knife on Saturday in Chicago.
According to the police, the family was targeted because of their Islamic beliefs and in reaction to the violence in Palestine and Israel.
"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 Will County Sheriff's Office said in a statement posted to social media.
According to the Council on American–Islamic Relations (Cair), a Muslim civil rights advocacy group, the landlord entered the home and proceeded to choke and stab 32-year-old Hanaan Shahin. She allegedly went into the bathroom and called 911.
When she came back out, she found her six-year-old son Wadea Al-Fayoume with a knife stuck in his tiny body, stabbed 26 times with a 12-inch serrated military knife with a seven-inch blade.