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.
Dressed in military fatigues, he put his phone down and filmed himself dousing liquid from a water bottle over his head and lighting himself on fire.
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.
It follows another incident in December when a person self-immolated outside the Israeli Consulate General building in Atlanta. A Palestinian flag was recovered from the scene and police described the incident as an “extreme political protest.”
There have been multiple protests since 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.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli military has presented the war Cabinet with a plan for the evacuation of civilians from “fighting areas” in Gaza. It comes as Netanyahu has spoken of a planned ground offensive on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city along the border with Egypt, where 1 million Palestinians have sought safety.
International figures, including United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, have warned against a full-scale Israeli assault on Rafah, citing safety concerns over Palestinians seeking refuge there as well as obstruction of the flow of aid.
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This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.