Before he was killed alongside his wife and two children in Gaza last month, Hani Jnena, 33, sent a final message to his colleagues in the West Bank.
“My daughters are terrified, and I am trying to keep them calm, but this bombing is terrifying,” he wrote, referring to Israel’s campaign of airstrikes and artillery bombardment of the Palestinian enclave.
Jnena, a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, died along with his family after an Israeli airstrike hit the Al Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City on Nov. 4, according to a statement his employer provided to The Washington Post.
He is among hundreds of humanitarian and development workers killed during the two-month conflict, a statistic that has infuriated USAID officials who want the Biden administration to intensify pressure on Israel to limit the civilian bloodshed.
USAID officials, some of whom endorsed an open letter last month urging a cease-fire in Gaza, told The Post that the Biden administration should use its leverage to force a change in Israel’s behavior. That would include placing restrictions on the billions of dollars in military assistance the United States provides to Israel every year. “We’ve seen far too much inaction from the White House and USAID leadership on this issue,” said one USAID official, who like some others interviewed for this report spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss disagreements with U.S. policy.
“The U.S. concern about these casualties remains almost purely rhetorical. There is no policy leverage being put behind it whatsoever,” said Konyndyk, president of Refugees International. “Beyond expressing concern and expressing regret, that’s where it stops.”
Besides frustration directed at the White House, several USAID employees expressed disappointment that the killing of Jnena was not acknowledged by the agency publicly or in internal staff-wide communication. USAID Administrator Samantha Power has been aware of his death since at least late November, when she sent a letter to the CEO of the USAID contractor he worked for, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.
This is a nothing burger. The US never cared about its citizens getting killed by the IDF.
The IDF literally crushed Rachel Corrie to death with a bulldozer, a US citizen that went to Gaza in 2003 to peacefully protest against the demolition of Palestinian homes under the illegal Israeli military occupation at the time. The IDF soldiers claimed they haven’t seen her, even though later accounts state that she was there protesting for hours and has been “an annoyance” to the soldiers. She was crushed to death and succumbed to her injuries. The soldiers never paid for what they did. The US didn’t even try to hold them accountable. They just said that they were unsatisfied with the IDF investigation and that was the end of the story.
Politically this death is ignorable, because this person did not work directly for USAID. They worked for a contractor. Plus there’s citizenship was not US. If Israel had killed a US citizen working directly for USAID on a USAID mission in Gaza, it would not be ignorable - at the very least the death would have to be acknowledged officially.
There’s many reasons to use contractors, but one of them is attenuated responsibility.
Pretty much all USAID work is accomplished by contractors. Most USAID employees exist only to set up and monitor the contracts. These contractors have US-based staff that compete for the contracts and then manage the ones they win. If they win, they hire contract staff.
When you read the news and see something like the “US gave $30 million to Uganda to improve its education system,” it really means USAID gave an American contractor some money to run a program in Uganda that hires some technical experts who work with the government of Uganda on improving education. Usually, the program is led by an American, who despite being a contractor gets the same pay and benefits as a foreign service officer. The rest of the staff are locals and make a generous salary for the area, but still based on the local cost of living. USAID approves all the salaries.
Contractors do get killed in the line of work as they work in often dangerous areas of the world. The government is not responsible for compensating them or their family, but often the contracting company they work for offers a benefit.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Jnena, a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, died along with his family when an Israeli airstrike hit Gaza City’s Al Sabra neighborhood on Nov. 5, according to a statement his employer provided to The Washington Post.
He is among hundreds of humanitarian and development workers killed during the two-month conflict, a statistic that has infuriated USAID officials who want the Biden administration to intensify pressure on Israel to limit the civilian bloodshed.
“In stark contrast to Hamas’ intentional attacks on Israeli men, women and children, the IDF follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”
The White House says it works hard to pressure the Israelis to take a more targeted approach in its military campaign in Gaza, and claims credit for persuading Israel to allow food and medicine into the territory.
“I understand that Hani was a tireless advocate for the people he served in Gaza — working long hours and sacrificing time away from his family to help communities access clean water.
During a recent visit to the El Arish airport in Egypt, where U.S. military planes have delivered tens of thousands of pounds of food and medical supplies destined for Gaza, Power noted that the conflict has become the “deadliest in history for U.N. aid workers.”
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