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Following the weekend shooting in Florida in an apparent targeting of Palestinians in a case of mistaken identity in which two Israelis were hit, a victim and members of the public are speaking out.Ìý

The incident took place in Miami Beach on Saturday night, when 27-year-old Mordechai Brafman, a local resident and an outspoken supporter of Israel, saw two men he said he targeted because he believed "they were Palestinian" and shot at them 17 times, wounding a father and son visiting from Israel.

On Monday, the son in the pair of victims, Ari Rabi, who had been wounded in the shoulder in the attack, that he was grateful to be alive and called for "peace", saying no one should be targeted for their background.

"A life shouldn't just be taken away from anyone. It doesn't matter who you are, what religion you are, or where you're from. People should just live in peace," he said, according to CBS news.

He appeared to have changed his tune after sharing an initial social media post saying "Death to Arabs" immediately following the attack, apparently believing he had been targeted for his identity as a Jewish Israeli.Ìý

His social media post drew widespread condemnation, prompting many to call for a hate crime investigation of the suspect, who immediately told police that he had targeted the victims because he believed "they were Palestinian".

"It should be noted that while in custody in our interview room, the defendant spontaneously stated that while he was driving his truck, he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both. The victims and the defendant do not know each other," according to the arrest report of the suspect, who was smiling in his mugshot taken at the police station.

"It is deeply ironic and telling that both the alleged pro-Israel perpetrator and the pro-Israel victim in the Miami Beach shooting reportedly hold racist anti-Palestinian views," said Nihad Awad, national director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in a .

"This just the latest example of the hate targeting the Palestinian-American community in this country and Palestinians in their homeland. Policymakers in our nation should stop fomenting the anti-Palestinian hate that led to the genocide in Gaza and to hate crimes in America," he added.

He believes the incident should be considered an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime, given the explicit statements of the suspect.

The Muslim civil rights group documented 4,951 incoming bias complaints nationwide from January to June 2024, a 69 percent increase over the same period in 2023. The spike appears to be in line with the October 2023 outbreak of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.