Three Palestinian college students were shot over the Thanksgiving weekend in Vermont, and one of the victims, Kinnan Abdalhamid, is now speaking out about the terrifying ordeal. Abdalhamid, along with his friends Hisham Awartani and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, were taking a holiday stroll in Burlington when a man on his porch suddenly pulled out a gun and started shooting at them without any provocation. Abdalhamid recalls seeing the man turn towards them, pull out a pistol, and shoot his friend. He then heard another shot and realized his other friend had been hit as well. Abdalhamid managed to escape by jumping over a fence and knocking on a neighbor's door, who called 911. It wasn't until then that Abdalhamid realized he had been shot too. As an emergency medical technician, he knew that getting to the hospital quickly was crucial for his survival, so he asked the police to drive him straight there. Abdalhamid, a student at Haverford College, was discharged from the hospital earlier this week, but his friends are still receiving treatment. Ahmad, a student at Trinity College, was shot in the chest, while Awartani, a junior at Brown University, sustained a spinal injury that may leave him unable to walk again. The three students had all attended Ramallah Friends School in the occupied West Bank before coming to the U.S. for college. They had chosen to spend the holidays in Vermont due to concerns about the escalating violence in the Middle East. Abdalhamid believes that they were targeted because they were Palestinian, as they were caught in the crossfire of the Israel-Hamas war. Since the conflict began, there has been a rise in Islamophobia in the U.S., which may have contributed to the attack. The suspect, 48-year-old Jason J. Eaton, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of second-degree attempted murder. Authorities are still investigating the motive for the attack, but Abdalhamid and his friends believe it was a hate crime. The shooting has left the victims and their families shaken, with Awartani's mother expressing gratitude that her son received life-saving medical care in the U.S., unlike what would have happened if he had been shot in the West Bank. The incident highlights the fear and insecurity felt by many communities in the U.S. as tensions rise in the Middle East.