CNN —
When Israeli airstrikes began raining down on southern Lebanon, Kamel Ahmad Jawad’s first instinct was not to seek safety or return to the United States. Instead, he volunteered at a hospital to help people who wanted to run but couldn’t.
On October 1, Jawad, a 56-year-old American citizen, father of four, and beloved member of the Dearborn, Michigan, community, was killed in an Israeli airstrike, his family announced. The tragedy proves that fears that the conflict will spill over into the wider region are becoming reality as Israel escalates its attacks.
“We are honored by our father’s sacrifice. In his later years, he decided to stay near the main hospital in Nabatiers to help the elderly, the disabled, the injured and those who could not afford to flee. I made the choice,” his daughter Nadine Jawad wrote in a statement on Facebook.
“He acted as their guardian, provided them with food, mattresses, and other comforts, and paid off their debts anonymously. I often asked him if he was not afraid, but… He told me over and over again that there was no need to be afraid because he was doing what he loved most: helping others live on the land he loved most.”
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli airstrikes have been reported over the past week in Nabatiyeh, the hometown where Mr. Jawad was killed. CNN contacted the Israeli military, which said it could not comment unless it knew the exact coordinates and time of the attack that killed Jawad.
Israel has attacked Lebanon in an unprecedented air campaign, killing more than 1,400 people, injuring nearly 7,500 and displacing more than 1 million people, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. The shelling, which Israel claimed was targeting Hezbollah positions in the country, was the world’s “heaviest airstrike outside Gaza” in 20 years, according to conflict monitoring group Air Wars.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah is officially considered a “resistance” group tasked with confronting Israel, and Beirut classifies Israel as an enemy state. However, much of the Western world has designated Iranian-backed groups as terrorist organizations.
Israeli officials say Israel and Hezbollah have continued to escalate their retaliation since October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched deadly attacks in Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. There is. In the ensuing Gaza war, Israeli artillery and ground attacks have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Armed groups from Lebanon to Yemen to Iran have responded with attacks on Israel, which has responded in kind, raising fears of a broader regional war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war was being fought only against Hezbollah, not the Lebanese people, and that the Israeli military had repeatedly told civilians to evacuate areas under shelling. Lebanese authorities have accused Israel of indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, including the capital Beirut.
A CNN reporting team in Beirut this week found that many of the Israeli attacks occurred without prior warning. Israel also sends evacuation orders by text in the middle of the night, when most people are asleep. As a result, Lebanon’s death toll continues to rise, with a fifth of the population now displaced.
But for Jawad, it was people, not geopolitics, that mattered most.
“In his final moments, my father was calm. He emphasized our collective responsibility to help those who are oppressed. Even in the face of destruction from missiles falling all around us, he emphasized our collective responsibility to help those who are oppressed. “His belief in the importance of caring for the community remained unchanged,” his daughter wrote.
“Our father’s message was clear: stop arming, aiding and repressing, and start caring for those struggling for freedom and dignity.”
Jawad’s killing sparked an outpouring of love and fond memories in Dearborn, home to the largest Arab American and Lebanese communities in the United States.
In the days since his death, friends, family, community members and local officials are paying tribute to a man they say was beloved for his selflessness and dedication to both the American and Lebanese communities. I posted my comment online.
Many remember him as a kind and generous man who did not like to make a fuss about his good deeds. Friends said he was known to save money every year so he could return to Lebanon to help people, feed them and pay off strangers’ debts. Jawad is also the founder of the Lebanese Diaspora Relief Organization, a nonprofit organization that provides food and medicine to families in need in Lebanon.
“There are people in this world whose integrity oozes when you meet them,” Jawad’s friend Hamza Raza said on Facebook. “He was a people person, and he loved helping people.
“We honor him for leaving this world as a martyr,” Raza said. “But we are sad for humanity. We are sad for the oppression of the State of Israel. We are sad that Americans were killed (by Israel) with weapons given to them by their own government. .”
Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, who is Lebanese and from Dearborn, told CNN that Jawad is a respected member of the community and contributes every day to improving the area. said.
“He has an incredible legacy and is someone who will truly be missed, someone who represents the best of Lebanon and the best of Dearborn, America,” Ayoub told CNN. ” he said. “It’s a tragic loss for the community, it’s a tragic loss for his family, his parents and all of us in the city.”
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Debbie Dingell of Michigan are among the many members of Congress who expressed their condolences to Jawad and his family.
Other Lebanese-American families in Dearborn are also grieving the loss of loved ones back home. Ali Dabaja said at least five members of his family were recently killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese city of Bint Jubeir. He said his cousin Batur Dabaja Saad, her husband and their three children, the youngest 8 years old, were buried under the rubble of their home.
Dabaja, who was close friends with the Jawad family and said he was heartbroken by his killing, said the Dearborn community was “in collective mourning” after being killed by Israel since Oct. 7. He said every death, including every Palestinian killed, had the same effect on the community. pain scale.
“All these lives mean something to us. Every one of those human beings, Arabs, brown faces, have been allowed to die, but they have stories and ambitions. “Every time one of those lives is lost for us, it makes our tragedy even worse,” Dabaja told CNN. “Every time we die, the fire within us continues to burn and burns even stronger.”
Their grief is accompanied by anger, despair, and a sense that America’s leaders are not listening to their pleas for an end to the violence that has claimed the lives of so many loved ones.
“We don’t just need kind words or diplomatic words,” Dabaja said. “We need action. We need policy changes, policies that say no to war, policies that say no to foreign war financing.”
The U.S. State Department confirmed to CNN on Friday that Jawad is not a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident, as Spokesman Matthew Miller originally said on Wednesday. Miller’s initial statements denying Jawad’s citizenship were criticized by the Arab American community and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who said the hasty remarks hurt the community and undermined the extent of Jawad’s loss, CNN reported. told.
A State Department spokesperson told CNN, “We are aware of reports of the death of Kamel Jawad, who was identified as a U.S. citizen, and are alarmed,” adding, “We are working to understand the circumstances of the incident.” Ta.
“As we have repeatedly pointed out, it is a moral and strategic obligation for Israel to take all possible precautions to reduce harm to civilians,” the spokesperson said. “Any loss of civilian life is a tragedy.”
The Jawad family has declined all requests for media interviews. Nadine Jawad referred to “dehumanizing” coverage of Arabs and Arab-Americans in an Instagram exchange with journalists.
In a statement on Facebook, Jawad said her father “never saw himself as a savior” but was “part of a larger movement of people who refuse to be silent in the face of oppression.” ” he said.
He dedicated his life, and ultimately sacrificed it, to Lebanon and his beloved Lebanese community here in the United States. But his American citizenship, his daughter says, does not make his life any more valuable than the lives of the thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians killed in Israeli airstrikes.
“His service and dedication to helping those in need is far from over,” she wrote, vowing to continue her work.
Before he was killed, Jawad sent a simple audio message to his children: Everything is fine, but if something happens to me, your duty is to the poor. ”
The family has already started a fundraiser in Jawad’s honor, raising more than $88,000 to help feed and assist displaced Lebanese civilians through his nonprofit organization.
“Their death is not just a death, it’s not just a loss, it’s a message,” Dabaja said. “His story is one that should be told to the whole world.”
