Lebanese American killed by Israeli airstrike while caring for those who were displaced, family says

(CNN) — When Israeli airstrikes began raining down on southern Lebanon, Kamel Ahmad Jawad’s first instinct wasn’t to seek safety or return to the US. Instead, he volunteered at a hospital to help those who couldn’t run – even if they wanted to.

On October 1, Jawad, a 56-year-old American citizen, father of four and cherished figure in the Dearborn, Michigan, community, was killed by an Israeli airstrike, his family says. The tragedy attests to fears of the conflict spilling over into the wider region being realized as Israel expands its assault.

“We are honored by my father’s sacrifice. In his last days, he chose to stay near the main hospital in Nabatieh to help the elderly, disabled, injured, and those who simply couldn’t financially afford to flee,” his daughter, Nadine Jawad, wrote in a statement on Facebook.

”He served as their guardian, provided them with food, mattresses, and other comforts, and anonymously paid 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.”

Israeli airstrikes were reported in Nabatieh, Jawad’s hometown where he was killed, over the past week, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. CNN has reached out to the Israeli military, which said they could not comment without being given the exact coordinates and time of the strike that killed Jawad.

Israel has pummeled Lebanon with an unprecedented airstrike campaign, killing over 1,400 people, injuring nearly 7,500 others and displacing more than a million people from their homes, according to the Lebanese health ministry. The bombardment, which Israel says is targeting Hezbollah strongholds in the country, marks the world’s “most intense aerial campaign” outside of Gaza in the last two decades, according to the conflict monitoring group Airwars.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah is officially considered a “resistance” group tasked with confronting Israel, which Beirut classifies as an enemy state. Yet much of the Western world has designated the Iran-backed group a terrorist organization.

Israel and Hezbollah have been locked in tit-for-tat escalation since October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a deadly attack in Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 others hostage, according to Israeli officials. In the ensuing war in Gaza, Israel’s bombardment and ground offensive has so far killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Militant groups from Lebanon to Yemen – as well as Iran – have responded by launching attacks on Israel, which has responded in kind, heightening fears of a wider regional war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the war is only with Hezbollah and not the Lebanese people, and that the Israeli military has repeatedly instructed civilians to evacuate areas under bombardment. Lebanese officials have accused Israel of indiscriminately bombing populated civilian areas, including the capital Beirut.

CNN teams in Beirut this week found that many Israeli strikes happened without prior warning. Israel also sends evacuation orders by text in the middle of the night, when most people are sleeping. As a result, the death toll in Lebanon continues to rise, with a fifth of its population now displaced.

But for Jawad, it was the people – not the geopolitics – that mattered most.

“In his last moments, my father was calm. He emphasized our collective responsibility to help the oppressed. Even as he witnessed destruction from the missiles falling around him, his certainty in the importance of caring for community – in any and every capacity possible – remained,” his daughter wrote.

“Our father’s message was clear: stop arming, aiding, and abetting our oppression and start caring for the people struggling for their freedom and dignity.”

An American community in mourning

Jawad’s killing has ignited an outpouring of love and fond memories in Dearborn, home to the largest Arab American and Lebanese communities in the US.

In the days since his death, friends, family, community members and local officials have posted tributes online to the man they say was beloved for his selflessness and dedication to both his American and Lebanese communities.

Many recall him as a kind, generous person who didn’t like to make a fuss out of his good deeds. He was known for saving money each year to return to Lebanon and help people, feeding them and paying off strangers’ debts without them ever knowing it was him, friends said. Jawad was also the founder of the nonprofit Lebanese Diaspora Relief Org, which provides families in Lebanon who are in need with food and medical supplies.

“There are some people in this world who when you meet them, sincerity shines out from them,” Hamzah Raza, Jawad’s friend, said in a statement on Facebook. “He was someone who loved people. And loved helping people.

“We applaud him on leaving this world as a martyr,” Raza said. “Yet we are sad for humanity. We are sad at the oppression of the Israeli state. We are sad that an American was killed by (Israel) with weapons given to him by his own government.”

American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee National Executive Director Abed Ayoub, who is Lebanese and from Dearborn, told CNN that Jawad was a well-respected member of the community who contributed to its betterment every day.

“He’s leaving behind an incredible legacy, and someone that’s going to truly be missed, somebody that really embodies the best of Lebanon and the best of Dearborn in the US,” Ayoub told CNN. “It’s a tragic loss for the community, a tragic loss for his family, for his parents, for all of us in the city.”

US Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Debbie Dingell of Michigan are among the many who paid tribute to Jawad and his family.

Other Lebanese American families in Dearborn also are grieving the loss of loved ones back home, including Ali Dabaja, who said at least five family members were recently killed by Israeli airstrikes in Bint Jbeil, a city in southern Lebanon. His cousin Batoul Dabaja-Saad, her husband and their three children – the youngest 8 years old – were buried beneath the rubble of their home, he said.

Dabaja, who is close friends with the Jawad family and says he is heartbroken over his killing, said the Dearborn community is in “collective mourning” and that every death – including every Palestinian killed by Israel since October 7 – has caused the community the same measure of pain.

“These are all lives that mean something to us, every single one of those human beings, those Arabs, those brown faces, have been allowed to die, but they had stories and ambitions and every single time one of those lives are lost for us, it compounds our tragedy,” Dabaja told CNN. “With each death, a fire inside of us continues to burn, and it burns stronger.”

With their sorrow comes anger and despair – and a sense that US 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 soft words and words of diplomacy,” Dabaja said. “We need action, we need change in policy, policy that says no to war, a policy that says no to foreign funding of wars.”

The US State Department confirmed to CNN on Friday that Jawad was a US citizen, not a legal permanent resident as spokesperson Matthew Miller initially said on Wednesday. Miller’s initial remarks disclaiming Jawad’s citizenship was criticized by the Arab American community and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which told CNN the rushed statements hurt the community and undermined the extent of Jawad’s loss.

“We are aware and alarmed of reports of the death of Kamel Jawad, who we have confirmed is a US citizen,” a State Department spokesperson told CNN, adding that they “are working to understand the circumstances of the incident.”

“As we have noted repeatedly, it is a moral and strategic imperative that Israel take all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm,” the spokesperson said. “Any loss of civilian life is a tragedy.”

‘Your duty is to the poor’

The Jawad family has denied all requests to speak to the media. In an Instagram exchange with a journalist, Nadine Jawad cited the “dehumanizing” coverage of Arabs and Arab Americans.

Jawad said in her statement on Facebook her father “never viewed himself as a savior,” only that he was “part of a much larger movement of people who refuse to stay silent in the face of oppression.”

He dedicated his life – and ultimately sacrificed it – for his beloved Lebanese community, in Lebanon and here in the US. 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 by Israeli airstrikes.

“His service and dedication to helping those in need is not over,” she wrote, vowing to continue his work.

Before he was killed, Jawad sent his children a simple voice note: “Peace be upon you. Everything is ok, but if something happens to me your duty is to the poor.”

The family has already launched a fundraiser in Jawad’s honor, collecting more than $88,000 to help feed and aid displaced Lebanese civilians through his nonprofit organization.

“Their death isn’t just a death, it isn’t just a loss, it is a message,” Dabaja said. “His story is a story that needs to be told to the whole world.”

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CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and Kara Fox contributed to this report.