The American police charged a 71-year-old man from the Chicago suburbs on Sunday with committing a hate crime after he stabbed a 6-year-old Palestinian child and seriously injured a 32-year-old woman.

The police confirmed that the attacker targeted the victims (the child and his mother) because of their Islamic affiliation and as a reaction to the war between Israel and Hamas.

U.S. President Joe Biden condemned the crime, calling it a “horrific act of hate.”

He said in a statement: “This horrific act of hate has no place in America and goes against our core values: the freedom from fear of how we pray and what we believe and who we are,” adding that he is praying for the recovery of the child's mother, who was also seriously injured in the attack.

In detail, the Will County Sheriff's Office said in a statement posted on social media: “Investigators determined that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect because they were Muslims and due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East between Hamas and the Israelis,” according to the Associated Press.

Officers found the victims late Saturday morning at a home located in an area near the town of Plainfield, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

The sheriff's office said that the child, who was pronounced dead at the hospital, was stabbed 26 times with a large military knife, according to an autopsy on Sunday. The woman sustained more than a dozen stab wounds to her body. She remained in the hospital on Sunday but is expected to survive.

The police stated that the man suspected of committing the crime was found on Saturday outside “sitting on the ground near the house’s driveway” with a wound on his forehead.

He was in custody on Sunday awaiting a court appearance, and the police charged him with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of committing hate crimes, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

The authorities did not release the names of the victims, but the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) planned to hold a press conference on Sunday with a family member and identified the victims as Wadi'a Al-Fayyum, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy, and his mother Hanan Shaheen.

They had been living in the downstairs of the house for two years, according to the organization, which stated that the suspect is the homeowner.

According to text messages from the mother to the child's father, the suspect reportedly shouted, “You Muslims should die!” before the stabbing, according to CAIR-Chicago.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations described the crime as “our worst nightmare,” part of a troubling rise in hate calls and emails since the outbreak of violence in the Middle East.

CAIR-Chicago expressed full confidence that local authorities will investigate this attack and prosecute it as a hate crime.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations - Chicago again called on officials and broadcasters to “reconsider fueling an atmosphere of hate and dehumanization, something we have not seen since the aftermath of the September 11 events that put communities at particular risk.”