US airman dies after setting himself on fire in front of Israeli embassy in protest at Gaza war

A US airman has died after setting himself on fire outside of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC, as he declared he would “no longer be complicit in genocide”.

Aaron Bushnell, 25, from San Antonio, Texas, started a livestream on the platform Twitch on Sunday afternoon in which he spoke about the war in Gaza.

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People participate in a vigil for US Air Force airman Aaron Bushnell outside the Israeli Embassy. Mr Bushnell died after setting himself on fire while live streaming in front of the Israeli Embassy in protest over the Gaza war. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” he says in the video, which was removed from Twitch soon afterwards. “I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonisers, it’s not extreme at all.”

He then set himself on fire.

Colonel Celina Noyes, the commander of Mr Bushnell’s 70th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing, said: “When a tragedy like this occurs, every member of the Air Force feels it.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Senior Airman Bushnell.”