US citizen killed in Israeli strike in Lebanon while helping elderly: Report

A US citizen, Kamel Ahmad Jawad, who was in Lebanon to help the elderly and disabled, was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut.

In Short

• US man living in Lebanon with his elderly mother dies in Israeli strike
• White House calls death of Kamel Ahmad Jawad a "tragedy"
• His death comes amid continued Israeli strikes on Lebanon

A US citizen was killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon's Beirut while helping elderly and injured near a hospital, according to his daughter and a Congresswoman representing his constituency, news agency Reuters reported.

The man, identified as Kamel Ahmad Jawad from Michigan's Dearborn, was killed in the Israeli strikes in Lebanon, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib's office said on Thursday.

According to Jawad's daughter, he died in an Israeli strike in Lebanon on Tuesday "while trying to save innocent lives". She said her father was living near a hospital to help the elderly and disabled when he came under the fire of Israeli attacks.

The White House expressed its condolences to Jawad's family, terming the incident a "tragedy".

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

According to US-based Detroit News, Jawad was in Lebanon taking care of his elderly mother. His friends called him "one of the kindest and most generous humans".

The already volatile Middle East witnessed a dramatic escalation in tensions earlier this week after Iran attacked Israel with 181 ballistic missiles. The attacks were in response to a massive Israeli strike on Hezbollah's headquarters in Beirut, which killed the chief of the Iran-backed group, Hassan Nasrallah.

The US has faced criticism for its support of its ally Israel, which is also waging a war in Gaza in which over 41,000 people have been killed and over 2.3 million displaced. Dearborn, where Jawad was from, has a large Arab-American population.

More than 1,900 people have been killed and over 9,000 wounded in Lebanon in almost a year of cross-border fighting, with most of the deaths occurring in the past two weeks, according to Lebanese government statistics.