Three Palestinian men shot, injured in apparent hate crime in US’s Vermont

Three Palestinian men in the United States were shot and injured on Saturday in the state of Vermont, The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee reported on Sunday.

The victims, all 20-year-old, were shot last night while on their way to a family dinner, DNC said.

Witnesses told police two of the victims were wearing Kuffiyeh, a symbol of Palestinian identity and resistance, and all three speaking Arabic when a man begin shouting at them before opening fire, hitting all three.

For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

The families identified the victims as Hisham Awartani, a student at Brown University in Rhode Island; Kinnan Abdel Hamid, a student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania; and Tahseen Ahmed, who attends Trinity College in Connecticut. All three are graduates of the Ramallah Friends School, a private Quaker secondary school in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the families said.

Two of the students were visiting the home of the third student’s family in Burlington for the Thanksgiving holiday before they were shot.

The shooting came amid a rise in anti-Islamic and antisemitic incidents reported around the United States since the latest wave of Israel-Palestinian bloodshed erupted in the Middle East on Oct. 7.

The victims’ families issued a joint statement earlier in the day urging authorities to investigate the shooting as a hate crime.

The National Executive Director of ADC Abed Ayoub expressed deep concern over the incident, stating, “We are praying for a full recovery of the victims and will support the families in any way that is needed. Given the information collected and provided, it is clear that hate was a motivating factor in this shooting.”

“The surge in anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiment we are experiencing is unprecedented, and this is another example of that hate turning violent,” Ayoub added.

Palestinian Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot wrote on X, formely Twitter, condemning the shooting and drewing attention to a similar hate crime six weeks ago, where a 6-year-old Palestinian child was stabbed to death in Illinois.

“Six weeks ago, a 6-year-old Palestinian child was stabbed 26 times in a hate crime in Illinois. The hate crimes against Palestinians must stop. Palestinians everywhere need protection,” urged Zomlot.

“In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime,” Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said in a statement.

“I have already been in touch with federal investigatory and prosecutorial partners to prepare for that if it’s proven,” Murad added, saying the criminal probe was focused for now on apprehending the suspect.

“That there is an indication that this shooting could have been motivated by hate is chilling, and this possibility is being prioritized” by police, Mayor Miro Weinberger said.

The Palestinian foreign ministry on Sunday condemned the shooting of the three Palestinian students who they said had sustained “severe and moderate injuries” during the shooting.

Police said all three remained under medical care on Sunday, two with gunshot wounds in their torsos and one shot in the lower extremities. “Two are stable, while one has sustained much more serious injuries,” police said.

With agencies

Read more:

US man pleads not guilty to hate crime, murder in attack on Palestinian mother, son