Aaron Bushnell, 25, who was an active member of the United States Air Force, set himself on fire outside the gates of the Israel embassy in Washington, DC.
Bushnell was rushed to hospital following the incident, but according to independent journalist Talia Jane, succumbed to his injuries.
In a video posted to social media, Bushnell can be seen describing his self-immolation as an act of "extreme act of protest" against Israel’s war on Gaza.
"My name is Aaron Bushnell, I am an active-duty member of the United States Air Force and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. 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 colonizers, it's not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal," says Bushnell in the video, as he sets his phone down and proceeds to set himself alight.
He can be heard screaming "Free Palestine" numerous times, before ultimately falling to the ground.
In a social media post prior to the incident, Bushnell had allegedly posted "many of us like to ask ourselves, 'What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?' The answer is, you're doing it. Right now."
Bushnell was confirmed as an active-duty airman by an Air Force spokesperson, and is a DevOps engineer based in San Antonio according to his LinkedIn profile.