An American soldier who tried to set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington on Sunday to protest the war in Gaza has died of his wounds, US forces announced Monday.
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“The person involved in yesterday's incident succumbed to his injuries and died last night,” Rose M. Riley, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said in a brief message to AFP.
“We will provide additional information 24 hours after relatives are notified,” she added.
AFP
Rescue workers rushed to the scene just before 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. GMT) on Sunday in response to a “call about a person on fire outside the Israeli embassy,” the capital's fire department said on X.
When they arrived, they found that the Secret Service, the protection service for high-ranking American officials, had already put out the fire.
The man was taken to hospital with “serious, life-threatening injuries,” according to the same source.
An Air Force spokesman confirmed to AFP that he was an active member, without giving further details.
The Israeli embassy, for its part, said no employees were injured in the incident and that the American soldier was “unknown.”
AFP
A video, which according to media reports was first broadcast live on the Twitch platform and then circulated on social networks, shows a man in a military uniform spraying himself with a liquid before chanting “Free Palestine!” (Liberate Palestine!) as he quickly catches fire in front of the embassy gate until he falls to the ground.
“I will no longer participate in genocide. “I am going to engage in an extreme act of protest,” this man declares in this video, which AFP could not immediately verify.
This act comes at a time when demonstrations in the United States against Israel's devastating offensive in Gaza, which has been underway for more than four months, and the unprecedented attack carried out in Israel on October 7 by commandos of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas was committed, increase.
The United States is Israel's main diplomatic and military supporter.