29,606 people have died in Gaza since October

An active member of the United States Air Force died after immolating himself this weekend in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington in protest of the conflict in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, the Pentagon reported Monday.

A spokeswoman for the institution said that the man, whose name was not released, “succumbed to his injuries and died last night” Sunday. “We will provide additional details 24 hours after next of kin notifications are completed,” she added.

Emergency teams responded to the Israeli embassy in Washington on Sunday shortly before 1:00 p.m. local time (6:00 p.m. GMT) in response to a “call for a person on fire” there, according to a message on the force’s social network Fire Department of the American capital.

When they arrived at the scene, they found that the fire had already been extinguished by agents of the Secret Service, the agency in charge of protecting the embassies in Washington.

Local media reported that the subject, who was wearing a uniform, apparently broadcast live on the social network Twitch, assuring that “he will not be complicit in genocide” before spraying himself with liquid, in reference to Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

He then blew himself up while shouting “Free Palestine!” until she fell to the ground, according to reports

The event occurred at a time when protests are increasing in the United States against Israel’s military actions in Gaza, which it subjects to intense bombing and where it carries out continuous ground operations in a war in retaliation for the unprecedented attack perpetrated on its territory on September 7. October by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

That day the militants killed 1,160 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250, according to an AFP report based on Israeli data.

The death toll in Gaza from Israel’s response is approaching 30,000, most of them civilians, according to the Ministry of Health of the Hamas-ruled area, increasing international pressure on the United States to stop its traditional ally. Israel and call for a ceasefire.

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