Man Charged with Attempted Murder in Florida Shooting of Israeli Visitors
A man has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly shooting two Israeli visitors in Miami Beach, Al Jazeera reports.
Authorities say the suspect, identified as 27-year-old Mordechai Brafman, believed the victims were Palestinian.
Brafman was booked on Sunday on two counts of attempted murder, according to Miami-Dade County Corrections records. An arrest report alleges that Brafman “spontaneously stated that while he was driving his truck, he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both.”
The victims, identified in local media reports as a Jewish father and son visiting from Israel, both survived the shooting. One sustained a shoulder injury, while the other was wounded in the forearm.
One of the victims, identified as Ari Revay, told WPLG Local 10 that the shooter opened fire from a passing truck aimed at him and his father.
The incident comes amid a reported surge in anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic hate incidents since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023. Advocacy groups have warned of increased violence targeting both Palestinian and Jewish communities in the United States.
Prior incidents include the fatal stabbing of six-year-old Wadea al-Fayoume, a Palestinian-American boy, in Illinois on October 14, 2023. Authorities alleged the attack was motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment. Other incidents include an attempted drowning of a three-year-old Palestinian-American girl in Texas and the shooting of three young Palestinian men near a university campus in Vermont in November 2023.
