Family Reports: Palestinian-American Father of Five, Khamis Ayyad, Dies in West Bank Arson Attack

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CICERO, Ill. (WLS) — The family of a Palestinian-American man with ties to the Chicago area say he was killed this week in the West Bank.

ABC News has reported several Americans have been killed there.

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Khamis Ayyad, a husband with five children, raised his family in Cicero, Illinois. About five years ago, they moved overseas to his native West Bank while he worked remotely for an American company.

His family said he was killed amid the ongoing violence in the region while trying to save lives from fires believed to be arson.

We demand that the Department of Justice investigates the killing of a U.S. citizen abroad

William Asfour, CAIR-Chicago

Mourners cried in the streets of a town in the West Bank as they carried the body of Ayyad to his final resting place.

The 40-year-old man’s family said he died from smoke inhalation early Thursday morning local time.

The family claims that Israeli settlers set cars on fire in his family’s village in the middle of the night. That claim has not yet been verified by Israel.

Ayyad woke up to help save lives from the growing flames.

“No retaliation from the Palestinian people, except to come out and try to put the fire out,” his cousin Mahmoud Issa said.

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His family in the Chicago-area spoke their pain Friday alongside elected officials at the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

“He died while trying to put out fires set by Israeli settlers,” said Illinois State Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid, District 21. “He was killed by the smoke, reportedly, the tear gas fired by the Israeli military.”

“Here at CAIR-Chicago, we demand that the Department of Justice investigates the killing of a U.S. citizen abroad,” said William Asfour with CAIR-Chicago.

ABC7 has reached out to the Israeli Consul General and the State Department for a comment but have not heard back.

Ayyad is at least the second American killed in West Bank in July alone, and he is the fifth killed since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, according to ABC News.