An active US soldier, a member of the Air Force, burned himself to death on Sunday afternoon in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington as a protest against the war that this country is waging in Gaza, according to the Metropolitan Police and emergency services. . The man was hospitalized in critical condition, but later died due to the severity of his injuries, according to sources close to the family.
In a video that was published on social networks, the soldier, Aaron Bushnell, 25, in a military uniform can be seen spraying himself with flammable liquid and being engulfed in flames while shouting “Free Palestine” in front of the diplomatic legation, in a central neighborhood. of the American capital.
“I am an active member of the Air Force and I am not going to continue being complicit in genocide,” said the man in the video in which he also points out that he wants to resort to a type of “extreme protest” against the Israeli military offensive in Gaza. , which began on October 7, after the Hamas attack where 1,200 people died and 253 were kidnapped. The Air Force confirmed that a member of that branch of the Armed Forces had been involved in the incident, but without providing further details.
Law enforcement responded immediately to the event, although it took them a minute to act to extinguish the flames. In the same video you can hear a security agent ordering the soldier to lie down on the ground while his body continues to burn. After a minute after the ignition, Bushnell falls to the ground and then some agents or security personnel approach him, one of them pointing a gun at him, and put out the fire with a fire extinguisher.
An explosives unit from the Washington Metropolitan Police was deployed to examine a suspicious car, which ultimately posed no threat.
The fire department and emergency services indicated that the man was rushed to hospital with “critical” injuries. However, journalist Talia Jane, the same one who published the video provided by the family, reported this Monday morning that Bushnell “succumbed to his injuries.”
Protests against the Israeli response to the Hamas attack on its territory have spread throughout the United States, Israel’s main ally and arms supplier, with the common demand for a “ceasefire” given the number of civilian victims from military operations. of Israel in this densely populated enclave, nearly 30,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities. In December there was another case of a person burning himself to death in front of the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, also as a protest against the war.
