By SOPHIA TAREEN and MELISSA PEREZ WINDER

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — A jury found an Illinois landlord guilty of murder and hate crime charges Friday for a brutal 2023 attack on a Palestinian American family that killed a 6-year-old.

Joseph Czuba, 73, was charged in the fatal stabbing of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen on Oct. 14, 2023 in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Chicago. Authorities alleged the family — who were renting rooms in Czubas house — was targeted because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas that erupted on Oct. 7, 2023.

Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes over the crime that renewed fears of anti-Muslim discrimination in the Chicago area’s large and established Palestinian community.

The trial featured detailed testimony from police officers, medical workers, Czuba’s ex-wife and Shaheen, who described how Czuba attacked her with a knife before going after her son in a different room. Prosecutors say that the child had been stabbed 26 times. He was found naked with a knife still in his side.

Graphic photos of the murder, a knife holder Czuba allegedly used that day, along with police video footage were central to the Will County prosecutors’ case. At times video screens showing explicit footage were turned away from the public viewing audience where members of Wadee’s family sat during the trial.

“If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s attorney, told jurors during opening statements.

Czuba had pleaded not guilty. He faced murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crime charges in an eight-count indictment.

Defense attorneys insisted pieces of evidence tying Czuba to the crimes were missing. His ex-wife, testifying for the prosecution, could only describe one outburst during their 30 years of marriage and said he carried knives often because he was handy around the house.

“Go beyond the emotions to carefully examine the evidence,” said Kylie Blatti, one of Czuba’s public defenders. “It is easy to get lost in the horror of those images.”

One of the critical parts of the trial was Shaheen’s testimony and the 911 she made to report the crime that happened just days after the war started. She said they had not previously had any issues in the two years they rented from the Czubas. They shared a kitchen and living room with the Czubas.

Then after the start of the war, Czuba told her that they had to move out because Muslims were not welcome. Later, he confronted Shaheen and attacked her, holding her down, stabbing her and trying to break her teeth.

“He told me ’You, as a Muslim, must die,” said Shaheen, who testified in English and Arabic though a translator.

Shaheen had more than a dozen stab wounds and it took her weeks to recover. The boy was later pronounced dead.

Police testified that officers found Czuba outside the house sitting on the ground with blood on his body and hands.

Separately, civil lawsuits have been filed over the boy’s death, including by his the father, Odai Alfayoumi, who is divorced from Shaheen and was not living with them at the house.

The case, which generated headlines around the world, comes amid rising hostility against Muslims and Palestinians in the U.S. since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023. The U.S. Department of Justice also launched a federal hate crimes investigation.

By PETER SMITH, Associated Press

Vice President JD Vance acknowledged Pope Francis’ criticism of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, without responding to any of its specifics or to the pontiff’s apparent criticism of Vance’s own deployment of Catholic tradition to justify such policies.

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Vance, a Catholic convert, spoke Friday at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington. He sought to downplay the controversy and said he and his family pray daily for Pope Francis during the 88-year-old pontiff’s hospitalization for pneumonia and other health troubles.

Vance told the gathering he wasn’t there to litigate “about who’s right and who’s wrong,” though he said he would continue to defend his views. But he spoke in conciliatory terms, crediting Francis as one who “cares about the flock of Christians under his under his leadership and the spiritual direction of the faith.”

Vance, who led the gathering in a prayer for Francis’ health, asserted that religious leaders shouldn’t be treated as social-media influencers subject to constant debate.

Francis issued a major rebuke earlier in February to the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations, warning that it would deprive migrants of their inherent dignity. Francis also apparently responded to Vance directly.

Vance, on social media, had defended the administration’s America-first policies by citing centuries-old teachings on “ordo amoris,” or the order of love, saying people must prioritize their families and those closest to them. Francis, in a subsequent statement, said a true understanding of that teaching is reflected in a “love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.” The pope cited the biblical parable of the Good Samaritan, who took care of a wounded stranger.

On Friday, Vance didn’t address that issue specifically but called himself a “baby Catholic” and acknowledged there are “things about the faith that I don’t know.” Vance became a Catholic in 2019.

He added: “I try to be humble as best I can when I talk about the faith and publicly, because of course, I’m not always going to get it right.”

He also acknowledged taking criticism from bishops, without mentioning what precipitated recent criticism – his claim that the bishops were taking millions of dollars in government aid to “resettle illegal immigrants.”

In fact, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has received millions to resettle legally approved refugees, though it is now battling the Trump administration in court over the cut-off of such funding. One leading cardinal called Vance’s claim “scurrilous.”

Vance also touted the Trump administration’s “protecting the religious liberty of all people, but in particular Catholics.” The administration created a task force focused on eradicating bias against Christians, the predominant religious group in the country.

Vance claimed Friday that the Biden administration “liked to throw people in jail for silently praying.”

Trump has said he pardoned an elderly woman put in jail “because she was praying.” In fact, she and co-defendants were sentenced for blockading an abortion clinic in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

Vance acknowledged “you’re certainly not always going to agree with everything that we do,” but he contended it has gone in the “exact opposite direction” of the Biden administration’s strong emphasis on the right to abortion.

Under Trump, the GOP removed a call for a constitutional amendment banning abortion from its 2024 platform, and Trump signed an executive order aiming to reduce costs for in vitro fertilization, which some abortion foes oppose because it can result in embryos being discarded.

Vance, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq, said that over the past four decades, “it has often been historical Christian communities who bear the brunt of failed American foreign policy.” That was an apparent allusion to such things as the U.S. invasion of Iraq’s impact on its Christian minority.

“Perhaps the most important way in which Donald Trump has been a defender of Christian rights all over the world is he has a foreign policy that is oriented towards peace,” Vance said, mentioning Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East by name.

The Catholic minority in Ukraine has been a staunch supporter of its country’s defense against the Russian invasion. Trump was scheduled to meet Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he hopes to persuade Trump to provide some form of U.S. backing for Ukraine’s security against any future Russian aggression.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

By MEGAN JANETSKY, MATÍAS DELACROIX and JOSHUA GOODMAN, Associated Press

MIRAMAR, Panama (AP) — Officials in Costa Rica and Panama are confiscating migrants’ passports and cellphones, denying them access to legal services and moving them between remote outposts as they wrestle with the logistics of a suddenly reversed migration flow.

The restrictions and lack of transparency are drawing criticism from human rights observers and generating increasingly testy responses from officials, who say their actions are aimed at protecting the migrants from human traffickers.

Both countries have received hundreds of deportees from various nations sent by the United States as President Donald Trump’s administration tries to accelerate deportations. At the same time, thousands of migrants shut out of the U.S. have started moving south through Central America – Panama recorded 2,200 so far in February.

“We’re a reflection of current United States immigration policy,” said Harold Villegas-Román, a political science professor and refugee expert at the University of Costa Rica. “There is no focus on human rights, there is only focus on control and security. Everything is very murky, and not transparent.”

Deportations and reversed migration

Earlier this month, the U.S. sent 299 deportees from mostly Asian countries to Panama. Those who were willing to return to their countries – about 150 to date — were put on planes with the assistance of United Nations agencies and paid for by the U.S.

Venezuelan migrant Luisleibis Navarro carries her son, as he waits to board a boat departing from Panama’s Caribbean coastal village of Miramar to the border with Colombia, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. Migrants are returning from southern Mexico after giving up on reaching the U.S., a reverse flow triggered by President Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Carlos Ruiz-Hernandez, Panama’s deputy foreign minister, said Thursday a small number are in contact with international organizations and the U.N. Refugee Agency as they weigh whether to seek asylum in Panama.

“None of them wants to stay in Panama. They want to go to the U.S.,” he said in a phone interview from Washington. “We cannot give them green cards, but we can get them back home and for a short period of time provide them with medical and psychological support as well as housing.”

Despite Trump’s threats to retake control of the Panama Canal, he said Panama had not acted under U.S. pressure. “This is in Panama’s national interest. We are a friend of the U.S. and want to work with them to send a signal of deterrence.”

Ruiz-Hernandez said some of the deportees remaining in Panama would be given the option of staying at a shelter originally set up to handle the large number of migrants moving north through the Darien Gap.

One Chinese deportee currently detained in the camp, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid repercussions, said she wasn’t given a choice.

Boats transporting migrants depart from the Caribbean coastal village of Miramar, Panama, for the Colombian border, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, as migrants return from southern Mexico after abandoning hopes of reaching the U.S. in a reverse flow triggered by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

She was deported to Panama without knowing where they were being sent, without signing deportation documents in the U.S. and without clarity of how long they would be there. She was among the deportees who were moved from a Panama City hotel where some held up signs to their windows asking for help to a remote camp in the Darien region.

Speaking to the AP over messages on a cellphone she kept hidden, she said authorities confiscated others’ phones and offered them no legal assistance. Others have said they’ve been unable to contact their lawyers.

“This deprived us of our legal process,” she said.

Panama President José Raúl Mulino, asked about the lack of access to legal services on Thursday, questioned the idea that migrants would even have lawyers.

“Doesn’t it seem like a coincidence that those poor people have lawyers in Panama?” Mulino said.

‘Black hole for deported migrants’

Costa Rica and Panama have so far denied press access to facilities where they are holding migrants. Panama had initially invited journalists to the Darien this week, but ultimately canceled the visit.

Migrants board a boat at the Caribbean coastal village of Miramar, Panama, bound for the Colombian border, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, as migrants return from southern Mexico after abandoning hopes of reaching the U.S. in a reverse flow triggered by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

“Panama cannot end up becoming a black hole for deported migrants,” said Juan Pappier, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in the Americas. “Migrants have the right to communicate with their families, to seek lawyers and Panama must guarantee transparency about the situation in which they find themselves.”

Costa Rica has faced similar criticisms from the country’s independent human rights entity, which has raised alarm over “failures” by authorities to guarantee proper conditions for deportees arriving. The Ombudsman’s Office, said that migrants were also stripped of their passports and other documents, and were not informed about what was happening or where they were going.

Isolation and confusion on the route south

Panama and Costa Rica, long transit countries for people migrating north, have scrambled to address the new flow of migrants going south and organize the flow.

Kimberlyn Pereira, a 27-year-old Venezuelan traveling with her husband and 4-year-old son was among them.

Pereira had waited months for an asylum appointment in Mexico after crossing the perilous Darien Gap dividing Colombia and Panama and traveling up through Central America. But after Trump took office and closed legal pathways to the U.S., she gave up and decided to go home, despite Venezuela’s ongoing crises.

But after a week of being held in a Costa Rican detention facility near the Panamanian border she expressed “hopelessness.”

Officials there had told them they would be flown to Cúcuta, a Colombian city near the Venezuelan border. But they were loaded onto buses and driven to this Panamanian port on the Caribbean sea.

“We do feel a little more protected. They’ve given us food. My only concern is the confusion. This ‘Come here, now go over there, get in this,’” she said.

While she and other migrants spoke to an AP journalist in a public place, Panamanian immigration authorities grew visibly upset and loaded nearly 200 migrants back on buses to drive them to a nearby building. When journalists attempted to follow them, immigration officials temporarily stopped on the side of the road in an attempt to keep them from following.

Panamanian authorities declined to comment on the incident, but after voicing press freedom concerns, the journalists were allowed to catch up to the migrants.

Before dawn Thursday, Pereira and other migrants boarded wooden boats that carried them to near the Colombia-Panama border where they planned to continue their journey. They paid up to $200 each for the ride.

“I don’t understand why they chase off journalists, why we’re so isolated if the government is supposedly helping,” she said.

Janetsky reported from Mexico City and Goodman from Miami.

By JULIA FRANKEL

JERUSALEM (AP) — Mourners in Israel on Friday were burying the remains of one of the final hostages released in the first phase of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, as negotiators discussed a second phase that could end the war in Gaza and see the remaining living captives returned home.

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The funeral procession for Tsachi Idan, an avid soccer fan who was 49 when he was abducted by Hamas, began at a Tel Aviv football stadium en route to the cemetery where he was to be buried in a private ceremony.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Idan, taken from Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 2023 attack that sparked the war in Gaza, was killed in captivity.

His body was one of four released by Hamas early Thursday in exchange for over 600 Palestinian prisoners, the last planned swap of the ceasefire’s first phase, which began in January. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, and European Union.

Idan was the only one of his family taken to Gaza. His eldest daughter, Maayan, was killed as terrorists shot through the door of their saferoom. Hamas fighters broadcast themselves on Facebook live holding the Idan family hostage in their home, as his two younger children pleaded with them to let them go.

“My brother is the real hero. He held on,” Idan’s sister, Noam Idan ben Ezra, said in an interview on Israeli radio Friday. She said Idan had been “a pace away” from being released during a brief ceasefire in November 2023, when more than 100 of the 251 people abducted on Oct. 7 were released.

People attend a public memorial ceremony for slain hostage Tsachi Idan, a fan of Hapoel Tel Aviv F.C., who was killed in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, at Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. Hebrew: “Tsachi Idan – red in the soul.” (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

“Tsachi was forsaken twice. The first time when he was kidnapped from his home and the second time when the deal blew up,” she added. “The fact that Tsachi is not standing next to me today is the outcome of the decision-making and the policy here in Israel. They did not listen to us then, but it’s not too late to listen to us today.”

Concern for remaining hostages

With the first phase of the ceasefire deal set to end Saturday, relatives of hostages still held in Gaza are ramping up pressure on Netanyahu to secure the release of their loved ones.

According to Israel, 32 of the 59 hostages still in Gaza are dead, and there has been growing concern about the welfare of an unknown number who are still alive, particularly after three hostages released Feb. 8 appeared emaciated.

One of the three, Eli Sharabi, said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 Friday that he and other hostages had been held in iron chains, starved and sometimes beaten or humiliated.

“During the first three days, my hands are tied behind my back, my legs are tied, with ropes that tear into your flesh, and a bit of food, a bit of water during the day,” he said, in one of the first interviews by a hostage released under the current deal. “I remember not being able to fall asleep because of the pain, the ropes are already digging into your flesh, and every movement makes you want to scream.”

Sharabi found out after his release that his wife and daughters had been killed during the Oct. 7 attack.

The next phase of the ceasefire

Under the terms of the truce Israel and Hamas agreed to, Phase 2 of the ceasefire is to involve negotiations on ending the war that has devastated the Gaza Strip. That includes the return of all remaining living hostages and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the Palestinian territory. The return of the bodies of the remaining deceased hostages would occur in Phase 3.

Hamas said in a statement released Friday that it “reaffirms its full commitment to implementing all terms of the agreement in all its stages and details.” It called on the international community to pressure Israel to “immediately proceed to the second phase without any delay or evasion.”

Officials from Israel, Qatar and the United States have started “intensive discussions” on the ceasefire’s second phase in Cairo, Egypt‘s state information service said Thursday. Netanyahu’s office confirmed he had sent a delegation to Cairo. Israel has reportedly been seeking an extension of the first phase to secure the release of additional hostages.

“The mediators are also discussing ways to enhance the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, as part of efforts to alleviate the suffering of the population and support stability in the region,” said the statement from the prime minister’s office.

Israel’s negotiators will return home Friday night, said an Israeli official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks. Negotiations are set to continue Saturday, the official said. But it was not clear if the Israeli team would travel back to Cairo to attend them.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that the coming days are “critical,” and urged Israel and Hamas to fulfill their commitments.

The first phase of the ceasefire saw 33 hostages, including eight bodies, released in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Netanyahu has vowed to return all the hostages and destroy the military and governing capabilities of Hamas, which remains in control of Gaza. The Trump administration has endorsed both goals.

But it’s unclear how Israel would destroy Hamas without resuming the war, and Hamas is unlikely to release the remaining hostages — its main bargaining chips — without a lasting ceasefire. After suffering heavy losses in the war, the group has nonetheless emerged intact, and says it will not give up its weapons.

The ceasefire, brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, ended 15 months of war that erupted after Hamas’ 2023 attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people.

Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, who don’t differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths but say over half the dead have been women and children.

The fighting displaced an estimated 90% of Gaza’s population and decimated the territory’s infrastructure and health system.

Palestinians prepare for Ramadan amid destroyed homes

Palestinians who returned to destroyed homes in Gaza City started Friday to prepare for Ramadan, shopping for essential household goods and foods. Some say the Islamic holy month feels better than one spent last year, but still far from normal.

“The situation is very difficult for people and life is very hard. Most people — their homes have been destroyed. Some people can’t afford to shop for Ramadan, but our faith in God is great as he never forgets to bless people,” said Gaza City resident Nasser Shoueikh.

Ramadan is a holy Islamic month during which observant Muslims around the world practice the ritual of daily fasting from dawn to sunset. It’s often known for increased prayers, charity and spirituality as well as family gatherings enjoying different dishes and desserts during Iftar, when Muslims break their fasting, and Suhoor, the last meal before sunrise.

Associated Press writer Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv contributed.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war