Palestinian students studying at U.S. universities shot in Vermont

Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Three students from Palestine who are studying at universities in the United States were shot in Vermont, including one shot in the back, Saturday night.

"Ramallah Friends School board, administration, staff and community are deeply distressed by the recent incident involving three of our graduates -- Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdel Hamid and Tahseen Ahmed," their alma mater in the West Bank said on Facebook.

"While we are relieved to know that they are alive, we remain uncertain about their condition and hold them in the light."

The school said that Awartani was shot in the back and Ahmed was shot in the chest, with Hamid suffering minor injuries. Awartani is an Ivy League student at Brown University. Hamid studies at Haverford University and Ahmed studies at Trinity College.

"My cousin Hisham has been shot in the back while walking with his friends in Burlington for simply wearing kuffiyehs and speaking Arabic," Basil Awartani posted on Twitter. "Dangerous performative rhetoric from U.S. pundits and politicians as well as constant dehumanization of Palestinians has a real-life cost."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, said Sunday it was offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people behind the shooting.

"CAIR also called on state and federal law enforcement authorities in Vermont to investigate a possible bias motive for the shooting," the civil rights organization said.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also released a statement condemning the shooting and targeting of its citizens.

The shootings were confirmed by police to local news stations WCAX and WPTZ. It was not immediately clear if the attack is being investigated as a hate crime.

Police said officers received reports of multiple people shot around 6:35 p.m. on North Prospect Street and were taken to UVM Medical Center where they're being treated for non-fatal injuries.

The shooting comes amid a rise in hate crimes against Muslims across the United States, a phenomenon often categorized as Islamophobia -- though some say the label is not descript or critical enough to describe crimes against Muslims and people of Arab descent.