WASHINGTON: An Illinois man was sentenced to 53 years in prison on Friday for the murder of a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy in an attack deemed an anti-Muslim hate crime linked to the conflict in Gaza.

Joseph Czuba, 73, was convicted in February of fatally stabbing Wadea Al Fayoumi and attacking the boy`s mother, Hanan Shaheen.

Czuba was the family`s landlord and the attack took place a week after the Hamas raid in Oct 2023.

Wadea was stabbed 26 times and a serrated military knife with a 15-cm blade was removed from the child`s abdomen during the autopsy.

Shaheen and Czuba`s now ex-wife, Mary, testified that he targeted the Muslim family after becoming agitated about the conflict in Gaza.

Prosecutors said Shaheen called police in 2023 after Czuba forced his way into her bedroomand stabbed her repeatedly. She was able to lock herself in a bathroom to call for help, during which time Czuba attacked her child.

`The cruelty of this morally reprehensible killer and the impact of his violent conduct on this innocent child and mother is truly unfathomable,` prosecutor James Glasgow said in a statement.

Jurors deliberated for just over an hour before finding Czuba guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder and two counts of a hate crime.

Judge Amy BertaniTomczak sentenced Czuba to 30 years in prison for Wadea`s murder, 20 years for the attack on his mother and three years for the hate crimes, to be served consecutively.

During sentencing, the boy`s great-uncle Mahmoud Yousef asked Czuba why he did it, but received no response.

`We want to know what made him do this,` Yousef told the judge.-AFP