Christopher D’Aguiar, 28, was taken into custody Tuesday and charged with a hate crime, according to the NYPD.

The NYPD says D’Aguiar punched a 29-year-old woman in the face on Oct. 14.

When she asked why he punched her, police say he told her it was because she was Jewish.

Police say there has been an uptick in hate crimes in the city since the Israel-Hamas war began.

“Last week, we had a total of 51 hate crimes reported, meaning crimes that were deemed by our Hate Crime Task Force to be a hate crime. And of those 51 hate crimes, 30 of them were anti-Jewish. The majority of the 30 crimes that we saw that were anti-Jewish, they stem from graffiti, criminal mischief, aggravated harassment — basically almost bordering on free speech where people are yelling back and forth at each other until it takes a weird turn,” said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.

Anti-ethnic crimes are also seeing a slight rise.

“We also had four anti-ethnic incidents since Oct. 9 versus two last year and those anti-ethnic being Palestinian-related,” Kenny said.

According to the NYPD, a 16-year-old girl was riding a 5 train on Oct. 18 when a man pulled off her hijab while yelling at her.

Mayor Eric Adams posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, about the incident, saying that “we will keep you safe.”

Islamophobia, nor any other kind of hatred, is what “doesn't belong here.”

To this young person, her family and our Muslim community: this is your city and we will keep you safe.

If you have any information on this attack, please reach out to the @NYPDHateCrimes Unit. https://t.co/VsK51cRVSU

— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) October 24, 2023

The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force says it has been encouraging communities to report these incidents or anything that seems suspicious.

They are asking all New Yorkers to speak up if they see a hate crime committed, especially during these tense times.