The US Air Force serviceman who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington yesterday, most likely to protest the war in the Gaza Strip, has died, local media reported, citing Reuters.
NBC television, citing an anonymous US government source, said the serviceman had died and that more details would be released after the armed forces notified his family.
The television channel CBS and the newspaper “Washington Post” also reported the death, citing a representative of the police in the US capital.
Law enforcement in Washington did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The U.S. Air Force officer was hospitalized yesterday after Secret Service agents extinguished the flames, the District of Columbia Fire Department said.
The New York Times reported that the man, dressed in military uniform, broadcast the incident live on the Internet.
“I will no longer be an accomplice to genocide,” the man declared, before dousing himself with a clear liquid and setting himself on fire, shouting “Freedom for Palestine,” the publication reported.
The incident comes amid ongoing pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protests in the US following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped another 253.
Israeli forces then launched a military campaign against Gaza’s ruling Palestinian militant group, destroying much of the coastal enclave and killing nearly 30,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israeli embassies have become the epicenter of protests against the war. Reuters recalls that in December, a woman protesting the war also set herself on fire in front of the Israeli consulate in Atlanta (Georgia).
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last night that a possible truce agreement with Hamas would delay “somewhat” the planned offensive against the city of Rafah, the Associated Press reported. He stressed that he would convene the cabinet this week to approve the operational plans, which include the evacuation of civilians to other parts of Gaza.
“Once we start the operation in Rafah, the intense phase of fighting will end in weeks. Not months,” Netanyahu told CBS. “If we don’t have an agreement, we will do it anyway”.
According to the prime minister, four of the six remaining Hamas battalions are concentrated in Rafah.
2024-02-26 14:54:17
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