A 40-year-old man was charged with attempted murder in northeastern Vermont on Monday after he shot and wounded three students, believed to be of Palestinian descent, amid a surge in racist acts in the United States since the start of the Gaza war . , reports AFP.

The attack sparked outrage, with President Joe Biden saying he was “appalled,” according to his spokesman.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said “the investigation is ongoing, including whether this is a hate crime.”

The suspect, identified as 48-year-old Jason Eaton, was arrested Sunday night after a search of his home near the scene, Burlington police said.

He is suspected of firing four shots at three 20-year-old students in this northern Vermont town, wounding all three.

“One of them suffered injuries that may haunt him for the rest of his life,” Police Chief John Murad said at a news conference. On Sunday, the other two were described as being in a “stable condition”.

The three students, who were spending Thanksgiving in Burlington, near the Canadian border, were walking down the street and chatting in English and Arabic when the suspect appeared in front of them without speaking, opened fire and then fled, Murad said. Two of the victims were wearing kufiyeh, a traditional Palestinian headscarf.

According to authorities, two of the victims were US citizens and the third was a legal resident of the United States.

According to American media, the suspect was held in custody without bail.

“A hateful act”…

“While we don’t have evidence yet to say this is a hate crime, it’s absolutely clear we’re dealing with one,” Chittenden County District Attorney Sarah George said.

In the United States, a hate crime is an act against a person who is targeted because of certain characteristics of the person, such as ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, or disability.

In a statement released on Sunday, the families of the three victims asked the authorities to treat the case as such.

The Arab-American Committee Against Discrimination said that “there is reason to believe that this armed attack occurred because the victims are Arabs.”

“The fact that something like this happened to them shows the level of tension and hatred that exists in certain parts” of the United States, said Rich Price, the uncle of one of the victims.

Radi Tamimi, the uncle of another victim, said his nephew grew up in the occupied West Bank.

“I always thought bringing him here would be the right decision” for his safety, he said. “In a way, we feel betrayed.”

In the United States, the war between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip since October 7 has led to high tensions and an increase in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic acts.

In early October, a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy was wounded near Chicago by a 70-year-old man accused of a racist killing that police say is directly related to the ongoing war in Gaza.

In California, a teacher is on trial for involuntary manslaughter after the death of a Jew at a rally in early November that escalated into an altercation between pro-Palestinians and pro-Israelis.

“We have all noticed a very clear increase in the number and frequency of threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities across the country since October 7,” the justice minister said on Monday.

“There is an understandable fear in these communities,” he added.

Merrick Garland said the Justice Department is “closely monitoring the impact of the conflict in the Middle East on terrorist organizations and aggressive extremists in the United States and abroad.”