Aaron Bushnell: US airman sets himself on fire outside Israeli embassy, dies

A member of the United States Air Force has died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington in an apparent protest against Israel’s war in Gaza.

In a video before dousing himself in liquid on Sunday, the airman described the ongoing Israel-Hamas war as a “genocide.”

The Metropolitan Police Department identified the man as Aaron Bushnell, 25, of San Antonio, Texas, the MPD said on Monday.

Independent journalist Talia Jane first reported the identity of the deceased and death on social media.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Aaron Bushnell, who was wearing fatigues in Washington on Sunday, was a DevOps engineer based in San Antonio.

According to US media reports, Bushnell live-streamed himself on the social media site, Twitch, and said he would “not be complicit in genocide”.

While yelling “Free Palestine!”, Bushnell fired himself on fire and later at one stage he fell to the ground. However, the video footage has already been removed from the Twitch site.

The Air Force in a statement said on Monday that the individual, who sustained injuries after involving in yesterday’s incident, passed away last night.”

The Air Force said after military officials complete notifying his next of kin, the force would provide further information a day.

A spokeswoman for the embassy said no embassy staff members have been injured in the incident.

Earlier, in December, a person set herself on fire outside the Israeli consulate, Atlanta where a Palestinian flag was found.

At least 1,139 people were killed and about 250 were made hostages as Israel launched an assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7.

Since then, the Palestinian territory has been bombarded by Israel from air, land, and sea. Israel also launched a ground invasion.

According to Palestinian authorities, over 29,000 people have been killed in the Israeli attack, reports aljazeera.com.