Illinois Landlord Sentenced to 53 Years for Killing 6-Year-Old Palestinian Boy
A landlord in Illinois who killed a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy shortly after the October 2023 Hamas attack in Israel was sentenced to 53 years in prison today, according to Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow.
The consecutive sentences of Joseph Czuba, 73, include 30 years in prison for the first-degree murder of Wadee Alfayoumi, 20 years for the attempted first-degree murder of the boy's mother, Hanan Shaheen, and three years for hate crime charges.
Czuba was silent during the sentencing. Due to his age and the length of his sentence, Czuba is likely to die incarcerated.
'There is no sentence that can be imposed to bring justice for the heinous actions Czuba took on October 14, 2023,' Glasgow said in a statement. 'The cruelty of this morally reprehensible killer and the impact of his violent conduct on this innocent child and mother is truly unfathomable.'
Before the attack, prosecutors said Czuba was expressing concern over the Hamas–Israel conflict and asked Shaheen to move out of his property because she practiced the Muslim faith.
Shaheen called 911 on Oct. 14, 2023, and reported that Czuba was killing her child with a knife.
Related Stories
5/1/2025
4/30/2025
When the Plainfield Police Department and Will County Sheriff's Police arrived at the Plainfield residence, they found the boy lying on a bed unresponsive with multiple stab wounds to his chest and a knife protruding from his torso.
Shaheen, who had multiple stab wounds, told police that Czuba had forced his way into her bedroom, where he attacked her with a large knife. She was able to escape and lock herself in the bathroom.
While she waited for police to arrive, Czuba stabbed her son 26 times until he succumbed to his injuries.
Circuit Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak handed down the sentence following a five-day jury trial that concluded on Feb. 28.
The jury found that the murder of the young boy resulted from exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior that is indicative of wanton cruelty.
Czuba's public defender attorneys, Kylie Blatti and George Lenard, did not respond to requests for comment.
Mahmoud Yousef, the boy's great-uncle, said that no matter the sentence length, it wouldn't be enough. Yousef was the only family member who gave a victim statement.
The sentence was welcomed by Council on American Islamic Relations Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab, who said: 'No sentence can restore what was taken, but today's outcome delivers a necessary measure of justice. Wadee was an innocent child. He was targeted because of who he was—Muslim, Palestinian, and loved.'
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
Ald. Brendan Reilly: You can't separate anti-Zionism from antisemitism — and we must stop pretending you can
Our Jewish brothers and sisters are under siege in America. That's not hyperbole — that's fact. In recent months, the escalation of antisemitic violence has been horrifying. These are not online threats or symbolic protests — they are physical, targeted and fueled by a vicious ideology masquerading as activism. During Passover this year, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — one of the most prominent Jewish governors in America — sat down with his family for Seder in the governor's mansion. Outside, someone threw a firebomb into the house. Just weeks later, a Chicagoan yelled, 'Free Palestine,' as he gunned down two Israeli nationals in broad daylight outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., authorities say. In Boulder, Colorado, a man shouting 'Free Palestine' hurled Molotov cocktails into a crowd of Jewish seniors — including a Holocaust survivor — who were participating in a peaceful event to raise awareness for hostages held by Hamas. Eight people were injured. This is not a coincidence. This is a pattern. And the common thread is this: These victims were not targeted based on their political views. They were targeted simply because they are Jews. Let's be clear: There has never been a meaningful distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. Anti-Zionism claims to oppose a government, but victims of hate crimes are never screened for their opinion of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or the Likud party. No one asked those seniors in Boulder what they thought of Israeli settlement policy. No one asked Shapiro's children whether they support a two-state solution. They were simply Jewish — and therefore, in the eyes of the attackers, legitimate targets. This is not geopolitics. It is bigotry. And it's now being mainstreamed by far-left activists and social media echo chambers that treat Jewish identity as interchangeable with state power — a grotesque and dangerous lie. Worse yet, the Democratic Party has lurched ever leftward in recent years. It has become home to a growing number of far-left extremists who excuse these hateful acts of violence as a 'noble cause.' The violence is rising. Roughly 23 million Americans — about 9% of adults — believe force is justified against government officials, a 2023 survey by the University of Chicago's Project on Security reported. While that number is alarming across the board, what's even more concerning is that support for political violence now spans the ideological spectrum. Of the 23 million, 7.6 million identify as Democrats and 4.8 million as independents. Political violence is no longer a uniquely right-wing threat. The Boulder firebombing wasn't an outlier. It's part of a growing wave of violent extremism dressed in the language of 'resistance.' Jewish students at the University of California-Los Angeles have been physically prevented from attending class. Across college campuses, mobs shout, 'From the river to the sea,' and post lists of 'Zionists' for public harassment. Now is a moment that demands moral clarity — especially from Democratic Party leaders. If we believe in equality, dignity and pluralism, then we must also believe that violence against Jews — under any banner — has no place in American life. That means speaking up. That means drawing the line. That means saying, without euphemism or apology, that antisemitism cloaked as anti-Zionism is still antisemitism. When someone chants 'Free Palestine' while lighting Jewish people on fire, this is not a misunderstanding of policy — it's an embrace of hate. There is no such thing as anti-Zionism without antisemitism. In the real world — not in theory, but in practice — the two are indistinguishable. When anti-Zionism licenses dehumanization, mob intimidation, firebombings and terror, then it is not opposition to a government. It is a campaign of hate against a people. The mask has slipped. And it's time my fellow leaders in the Democratic Party stopped pretending otherwise.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Hamas says it killed 12 Israeli-backed fighters. Israeli-supported group says they were aid workers
CAIRO (AP) — A unit of Gaza's Hamas-run police force said it killed 12 members of an Israeli-backed militia after detaining them early Thursday. Hours earlier, an Israel-supported aid group said Hamas attacked a bus carrying its Palestinian workers, killing at least five of them. The militia, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, said its fighters had attacked Hamas and killed five militants but made no mention of its own casualties. It also accused Hamas of detaining and killing aid workers. It was not immediately possible to verify the competing claims or confirm the identities of those killed. The Israeli military circulated the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation 's statement on its social media accounts but declined to provide its own account of what happened. In a separate development, internet and phone lines were down across Gaza, according to telecom provider Paltel and the Palestinian telecoms authority. They said a key line was severed during an Israeli operation and that the military would not allow technicians into the area to repair it. Connectivity watchdog NetBlocks confirmed there had been a major disruption. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports. Previous blackouts have deepened Gaza's isolation and made it difficult for people to call first responders after airstrikes. The aid group's operations in Gaza have already been marred by controversy and violence since they began last month, with scores of people killed in near-daily shootings as crowds headed toward the food distribution sites inside Israeli military zones. Witnesses have blamed the Israeli military, which has acknowledged firing only warning shots near people it said approached its forces in a suspicious manner. Earlier this week, witnesses also said Abu Shabab militiamen had opened fire on people en route to a GHF aid hub, killing and wounding many. The United Nations and major aid groups have rejected the Israeli and U.S.-backed initiative, accusing them of militarizing humanitarian aid at a time when experts say Gaza is at risk of famine because of Israel's blockade and renewed military campaign. Last week, Israel acknowledged it is supporting armed groups of Palestinians in what it says is a move to counter Hamas. Abu Shabab's militia, which calls itself the Popular Forces, says it is guarding the food distribution points set up by the Israeli- and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in southern Gaza. Aid workers say it has a long history of looting U.N. trucks. GHF has denied working with the Abu Shabab group. In a statement released early Thursday, the foundation said Hamas had attacked a bus carrying more than two dozen of its local Palestinian aid workers near the southern city of Khan Younis. 'We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,' it said. 'These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons, and friends, who were risking their lives everyday to help others.' Rev. Johnnie Moore, a Christian evangelical advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump who was recently appointed head of GHF, called the killings 'absolute evil' and lashed out at the U.N. and Western countries over what he said was their failure to condemn them. 'The principle of impartiality does not mean neutrality. There is good and evil in this world. What we are doing is good and what Hamas did to these Gazans is absolute evil,' he wrote on X. Israel and the United States say the new system is needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off aid from the long-standing U.N.-run system, which is capable of delivering food, fuel and other humanitarian aid to all parts of Gaza. U.N. officials deny there has been any systematic diversion of aid by Hamas, but say they have struggled to deliver it because of Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order in Gaza. U.N. officials say the new system is unable to meet mounting needs, and that it allows Israel to use aid as a weapon by controlling who has access to it and by essentially forcing people to relocate to the aid sites, most of which are in the southernmost city of Rafah, now a mostly uninhabited military zone. Some fear this could be part of an Israeli plan to coerce Palestinians into leaving Gaza. Hamas has also rejected the new system and threatened to kill any Palestinians who cooperate with the Israeli military. The killings early Wednesday were carried out by the Hamas-run police's Sahm unit, which Hamas says it established to combat looting. The unit released video footage showing several dead men lying in the street, saying they were Abu Shabab fighters who had been detained and killed for collaborating with Israel. It was not possible to verify the images or the claims around them. Mohammed Abu Amin, a Khan Younis resident, said he was at the scene of the killings and that crowds were celebrating them, shouting 'God is greatest' and condemning those killed as traitors to the Palestinian cause and agents of Israel. Ghassan Duhine, who identifies himself as a major in the Palestinian Authority's security forces and deputy commander of the Abu Shabab group, posted a statement online saying they clashed with Sahm and killed five. He denied that the images shared by Sahm were of Abu Shabab fighters. The Palestinian Authority, led by rivals of Hamas and based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has denied any connection to the Abu Shabab group, but many of the militiamen identify themselves as PA officers. Israel renewed its offensive in March after ending a ceasefire with Hamas and imposed a complete ban on imports of food, fuel, medicine and other aid before easing the blockade in mid-May. The ongoing war and mounting desperation have plunged Gaza into chaos, with armed gangs looting aid convoys and selling the stolen food. The Hamas-run police force has largely gone underground as Israel has repeatedly targeted its forces. The military now controls more than half of the territory. The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostage. They are still holding 53 captives, less than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel's military campaign has killed over 55,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not say how many of those killed were civilians or combatants. Israel's offensive has flattened large areas of Gaza and driven around 90% of the population of roughly 2 million Palestinians from their homes. The territory is almost completely reliant on humanitarian aid because nearly all of its food production capabilities have been destroyed. ___ Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed. ___ Follow AP's war coverage at
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Israel says it detained Hamas members during an operation in southern Syria
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Israeli forces conducted an operation in southern Syria to detain several members of Hamas, the military said Thursday. Syria TV, a local station, reported that a force of about 100 Israeli troops stormed the southern Syrian village of Beit Jin near the border with Lebanon and called the names of several people through loud speakers who were detained. Syria TV said one person was shot dead by the Israeli force. The Israeli military said that the detained people were Hamas members who were planning attacks against Israel, and that they were taken to Israel for questioning, adding that its forces also found weapons in the area. The detained people were not identified. Since the fall of President Bashar Assad 's government in early December, Israeli forces have moved into several areas in southern Syria and conducted hundreds of airstrikes throughout the country, destroying much of the assets of the Syrian army. The claim that the detainees were Hamas members could not be independently verified. There was no immediate comment from Hamas or Syrian authorities. During a visit to France last month, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said that his country is holding indirect talks with Israel to prevent hostilities from getting out of control.
