U.S. Air Force Member Dies After Setting Himself On Fire Outside Israeli Embassy

OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
11:50 AM – Monday, February 26, 2024

A United States Air Force member died after he reportedly set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., in an evident protest against the Israel-Hamas conflict.

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On Monday, officials confirmed that U.S. Air Force member Aaron Bushnell, 25, died after he lit himself on fire outside of the Israeli Embassy in D.C.

Bushnell, a San Antonio, Texas, native, passed away soon after, according to a U.S. Air Force spokesman. 

The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed that it assisted the Secret Service after being called to an incident on International Drive around 1:00 pm on Sunday.

In a video posted online, Bushnell was dressed in his military uniform while yelling “Free Palestine,” and claiming to be an active air force soldier. 

He set himself on fire while yelling the chant a number of times. Before law enforcement officials put out the fire, he was reportedly in flames for “almost a minute.”

Bushnell approached the Israeli Embassy and started broadcasting live on Twitch, a video streaming website, according to sources. 

Later, he put down his phone, drenched himself in a liquid that resembled gasoline, and lit himself on fire while declaring that he “will no longer be complicit in genocide.” However, the video was taken down from the streaming service an hour later after being reported.

“I will no longer be complicit in genocide [in Gaza]. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest,” Bushnell allegedly said, before drenching himself with an unknown liquid and setting himself on fire while repeatedly yelling “Free Palestine.”

Bushnell posted his last words on Facebook a few hours before he committed his tragic act of self-immolation.

“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now,” he wrote on Facebook.

Bushnell was an active member of the U.S. Air Force, according to an air force spokesperson, but they did not provide any other information. The man was “unknown” to the Israeli Embassy, according to a spokesman, and no employees were hurt besides himself during the incident.

According to the police, a suspicious car and driver that may be related to Bushnell prompted the dispatch of an explosive device disposal unit to the location. However, nothing dangerous was found.

Shortly before 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Department responded to a report of a person on fire outside the embassy. However, the fire had already been put out by Secret Service agents before firefighters arrived.

According to D.C. Fire and EMS, Bushnell was sent to a hospital with potentially fatal injuries and later passed away there.

Pro-Palestinian demands to end “the Israeli military assault in Gaza,” according to the conflict’s detractors, have focused their attention on the embassy as a protest location. Many pro-Palestine supporters who spoke with reporters have essentially insinuated that Israel and the IDF should forget about the hundreds of Israeli and American hostages still captive in Gaza in order to combat more Palestinian bloodshed.

The incident comes after the Islamic terrorist group Hamas’ cross-border assaults against Israel on October 7^th, 2023, which resulted in over 200 hostages and 1,200 deaths.