A U.S. military service member who had set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington over the weekend, in an apparent act of protest against Israeli military action in Gaza, has died, local police said on Monday.
Officer Lee Lepe, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department, confirmed the U.S. airman’s death. NBC News, citing an unnamed U.S. official, said more details would be released after the military notified his family.
The U.S. airman had been hospitalized in critical condition on Sunday after U.S. Secret Service officers put out the flames, D.C. Fire and EMS had said earlier.
The New York Times has separately reported that the man, wearing military fatigues, broadcast the incident live over the internet. “I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” the man apparently said before dousing himself in a clear liquid and setting himself on fire, screaming, “Free Palestine,” according to the Times.
The Pentagon said on Monday that it was a tragic event. Pentagon spokesperson Maj.-Gen. Patrick Ryder said U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin was following the situation.
The latest incident comes amid ongoing pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protests in the United States following the Hamas Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel that killed 1,200 Israelis and seized 253 hostages.
Israeli forces then waged a military campaign against Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that rules Gaza, destroying much of the coastal enclave, with nearly 30,000 people confirmed killed, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israel’s embassies have drawn continued protest against the war. In December, a woman protesting the war set herself on fire outside the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta.
According to a senior U.S. official, an “understanding” outlining the parameters for a temporary pause in fighting in Gaza has been reached, and more negotiations are expected in Qatar this week.
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