JOLIET, Ill. — An Illinois man was found guilty Friday in the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy and the wounding of his mother, an attack that prosecutors said was motivated by anti-Muslim hate, just days after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023.

Joseph Czuba stabbed the child 26 times in October 2023, a week after the Israel-Gaza conflict began. A jury convicted him on murder, hate crimes and other charges.

A jury found an Illinois landlord guilty of murder and hate crime charges Friday for the brutal killing of a 6-year-old whose mother rented rooms in the man’s home, an attack that spiked fears over anti-Muslim discrimination in the earliest days of the war in Gaza.

A landlord from Illinois was found guilty of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy and critically wounding the boy's mother.

Prosecutors said the man targeted the six-year-old and his mother over their Muslim faith following the Israel-Hamas war.

A jury found Illinois landlord Joseph M. Czuba guilty of murder in the stabbing death of Wadee Alfayoumi, a 6-year-old Palestinian boy.

This photo from the Will County Sheriff’s Office in the U.S. state of Illinois shows Joseph M. Czuba, who was found guilty Feb. 28, 2025, of murder and hate crime charges for an October 2023 stabbing that killed a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy and wounded his mother.

The boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, was fatally stabbed by 73-year-old Joseph Czuba, who stabbed the boy's mother Hanan Shaheen as well during the Oct. 14, 2023, attack in their Plainfield, Ill., home, the Will County Sheriff’s Office said at the time.

An Illinois jury has convicted Joseph Czuba of fatally stabbing 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi in an attack prosecutors say was motivated by the Israel-Hamas war.

A jury in suburban Chicago convicted a man Friday on murder and hate crime charges in the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy who lived at his property. The killing, which took place days after Hamas attacked Israel in 2023,