AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): An American citizen has been killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting Lebanon, as the US-backed Israeli military escalates its aggressive operations against Beirut, Lebanon's capital.
Kamel Ahmad Jawad, a US resident of Dearborn, Michigan, was killed in Nabatieh, Lebanon, the US government said on Wednesday without specifying the cause of death. However, his daughter and neighbors said he was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Jawad, who was in Lebanon to care for his elderly mother, 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. He was killed in Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday while attempting to shield others, according to his daughter, Nadine Jawad.
She added that her father was a US citizen, but that "should not make his story more important than others," noting that his life "is one of over 50,000 lives lost at the hands of Israeli aggression across the Middle East."
Democratic US Representative Rashida Tlaib's office announced on Wednesday that it has been in communication with the family of Kamel Ahmad Jawad, confirming that he was a US citizen and a constituent of the congresswoman.
The announcement came after earlier in the day, a US State Department spokesperson, when asked about reports of an American’s death in Lebanon, said, “It’s our understanding that it was a legal permanent resident, not an American citizen (who got killed in Lebanon) but we obviously offer our sincerest condolences to the family.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the United States, has attributed the responsibility for Jawad's death to the Biden administration and its backing of Israel's actions in Lebanon.
Washington faces increasing criticism for its support of Israel as violence escalates in the region.
The US government continues to offer Israel unwavering military and diplomatic support. Washington allocates a minimum of $3.8 billion in military aid to Israel each year.
In a devastating escalation of violence, Israeli airstrikes and military actions in Lebanon have killed at least 1,928 Lebanese people, including dozens of children, displaced a fifth of the population and injured several thousands in just two weeks, as reported by Lebanon’s health ministry.
In the latest attack against resistance front, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary general, was martyred on Friday during intense Israeli raids against Beirut.
Moreover, Israel claimed on Tuesday it had begun “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids” in southern Lebanon. However, Hezbollah has forced Israeli soldiers to withdraw, trapping the invading troops in several ambushes, killing at least 14 of them, and destroying several of their Merkava tanks.
Hezbollah has consistently declared its unwavering support for the Palestinian people in Gaza, emphasizing that the situation in Lebanon will remain tense as long as Israel continues its genocide in Gaza.
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