US man shot Israeli visitors thinking they were Palestinians, police say

A Florida man was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder in the US after shooting at a vehicle with two men he thought were Palestinians but turned out to be Israeli visitors, local authorities said.

The website of Miami-Dade county corrections said the suspect, 27-year-old Mordechai Brafman, was charged and booked on Sunday for the shooting on Saturday.

A police report shared by Miami Beach police showed that Brafman, when interviewed by police, said while he was driving his truck in Miami Beach he saw two people he thought were Palestinian. He said he stopped and shot and killed them, according to police.

However, the victims survived. One was shot in his  shoulder and the other in his arm. They turned out to be Israeli visitors and not Palestinians, police said.

A representative or lawyer for Brafman could not be immediately identified by Reuters.

Human rights advocates said there has been a rise in anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian and anti-Semitic hate in America since the start of US ally Israel's war in Gaza after the  October 7 2023, attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Other recent US incidents include the attempted drowning of a three-year-old Palestinian American girl in Texas, the fatal stabbing of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois, the stabbing of a Palestinian American man in Texas, the beating of a Muslim man in New York, a violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters in California and the shooting of three Palestinian American students in Vermont.

Incidents raising alarm over anti-Semitism include threats of violence against Jews at Cornell University that led to a conviction and sentencing, an unsuccessful plot to attack a New York Jewish centre and physical assaults against a Jewish man in Michigan, a rabbi in Maryland and two Jewish students in Chicago.

Reuters