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A pro-Israeli man in Florida fired at least 17 rounds on two individuals Saturday night, after stopping his car, he said, to shoot them because he believed they were Palestinian. Initial reports indicate they are in fact Jewish Israelis, a father and son, visiting the country.

The shooting in Miami Beach sent the two victims to the hospital for their wounds, with one reportedly shot in the shoulder and the other hit in the forearm with a semiautomatic handgun. Though they survived, the suspect, 27-year-old Mordechai Brafman, who shot them 17 times, was charged with attempted murder.

"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 suspect's arrest report.

Law enforcement did not confirm the victims' identities or if they were Palestinian, though they did note that they were visiting the US from Israel.

The shooting appears to be unprovoked, and so far there is no indication that the suspect knew the victims. However, tensions in the US and around the world have been heightened ever since the outbreak of Israel's war on Gaza in October 2023. Civil rights groups have documented a spike in biased incidents over the last two years.Ìý

Florida allows residents to carry concealed weapons without training, background checks or a concealed licence

According to the Department of Justice, the saw a major jump of over 50 percent in hate crime reports between 2022 (161 incidents) and 2023 (249 incident), with the biggest increase occurring in attacks related to ethnic backgrounds and religion.

Other high-population states, such as California, New York and Texas, saw a slight drop in reported hate incidents during the same period, according to the DOJ.

The Florida chapter of CAIR is urging for federal hate crime charges for the incident, given the explicit motive of the suspect.Ìý

Wilfredo Amr Ruiz said in a public statement, "It is the alleged shooter's reportedly bias-motivated actions, not the actual ethnicity of the victims, that should be the determining factor for charges in this disturbing case."

Biased incidents can include cases of mistaken identity, which appears to be the case in this weekend's attack.Ìý

the Miami Herald, a local Instagram account "South_Florida_Simchas", which posts about Jewish life, shared a photo of one of the shooting victims and said that they were an Israeli father and his son and that neither were Palestinian.