The U.S. Air Force member who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., in an apparent protest against the Israel-Hamas war has died, according to a U.S. official.
Next of kin notification is continuing, so the Air Force won’t release his name until 24 hours after the final notification is complete.
The District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Service Department responded to a call about a person on fire outside the embassy just before 1 p.m. Sunday, and found the flames extinguished by the Secret Service’s uniformed division.
The airman filmed the protest, yelling “Free Palestine” and collapsing to the ground.
In a livestream, he called the Israeli crackdown in Gaza “genocide” and said what he was doing was not as extreme as the suffering of the Palestinian people.
The man was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, D.C. Fire and EMS said. An Air Force spokesperson confirmed he was active duty.
The embassy said that no staff members were injured.
The incident comes as the Israel-Hamas war has stretched into its fourth month.
The war began after Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostage. Nearly 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
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