Israeli Airstrike Kills Michigan Man While Helping Those In Need In Lebanon, Family Says

DEARBORN, MI — A Michigan man was killed by an Israeli airstrike Tuesday in southern Lebanon, according to his family and U.S. officials.

Kamel Ahmad Jawad, 56, of Dearborn, died caring for his mother in his hometown of Nabatieh, where he chose to stay near the main hospital to help with elderly and disabled residents unable to flee the ongoing bombardments in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Jawad's family said in a statement that he served as a guardian for those in need, providing food, mattresses and anonymously paying off their debts.

"I would often ask him if he was scared, and he repeatedly told me that we should not be scared because he is doing what he loves the most: helping others live in the land he loved the most," she said.

Jawad's daughter said the fact he was an American citizen should not make his death any more important than the more than 50,000 people estimated to have been killed by Israeli forces in the past year.

"If my dad's story stands out to you, every other civilian murdered by the Israeli regime should as well," she said.

A White House spokesperson acknowledged Jawad's death in a statement on Wednesday.

"We are deeply saddened by the death of Kamel Ahmad Jawad and our hearts go out to his family and friends," it said. "His death is a tragedy, as are the deaths of many civilians in Lebanon."

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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called on the State Department to do more to help the more than 6,000 American citizens in Lebanon who have already filled out crisis paperwork.

"We are already hearing reports of confirmed deaths and fear there will be more," Whitmer told Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a letter first reported by the Detroit Free Press. "We cannot stand by while our constituents and their families are suffering."

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, noting that one of her constituents had already been killed by an Israeli airstrike, said on social media that the State Department was failing to protect its own citizens, among them a U.S. Marine veteran with a Purple Heart.

"Our government’s lack of urgency to get Americans out of Lebanon is shameful," Tlaib said.

A Defense Department spokesperson said the U.S. military could begin an evacuation of Americans if it was deemed necessary.

“The U.S. military is, of course, on the ready and has a whole wide range of plans," Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Thursday. "Should we need to evacuate American citizens out of Lebanon, we absolutely can."

So far, about 350 U.S. citizens and their relatives have returned from Lebanon on U.S.-arranged flights.

Hours before his death, his daughter said she was on the phone with Jawad when he was knocked to the ground by the impact of a nearby airstrike. He got back up, said he needed to continue to pray in case of another strike and then chose to stay and help.

"Our father's message was clear: stop arming, aiding, and abetting our oppression," according to his family's statement, "and start caring for the people struggling for their freedom and dignity."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement condemning the President Joe Biden's administration for arming the Israeli government and justifying its attacks on civilians in Lebanon.

“Only politics and racism could explain the Biden administration’s disgusting pattern of indifference to Americans of color killed by the Israeli government, from journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to Aysenur Ezgi Eygi to Kamel Jawad," it said.

The Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization said the Biden administration's foreign policy team should be ashamed of themselves for enabling war crimes.

"We do not expect this feckless and complicit administration to do anything to hold Kemel’s killers accountable," it added, "and we are done asking them to treat American Muslims killed overseas like human beings worthy of U.S. protection."

In the year since Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks killed nearly 1,200 Israelis, Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged cross-border fire nearly every day, with the Iran-backed militant Islamist group firing thousands of rockets from southern Lebanon into northern Israel.

Last week, an Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah headquarters killed the organization's longtime leader, Hasan Nasrallah. On Tuesday, Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel, wounding at least two people.

Lebanon's Health Ministry reported more than 2,000 people have been killed in two weeks of Israeli airstrikes and five days of ground operations during what has become Israel's fourth invasion of its neighbor to the north.

A commemoration service is scheduled for Sunday at The Islamic Center of America in Dearborn.