Islamic-militant group Hamas has reportedly released a statement on former Air Force member Aaron Bushnell's suicide by self-immolation in protest of Israel's military response in Gaza.
On Sunday, Bushnell live-streamed himself self-immolating outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington. Bushnell repeatedly yelled, "Free Palestine!" while on fire before collapsing. The Air Force member was extinguished by U.S. Secret Service and rushed to a nearby hospital. Authorities confirmed Bushnell's death on Monday.
Hamas responded to Bushnell's suicide in a statement, per Anadolu Agency.
“We in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) express our deepest condolences and our full solidarity with the family and friends of the American pilot Aaron Bushnell," Hamas reportedly wrote. "[His] name has been immortalized as a defender of human values and the oppression of the Palestinian people who are suffering because of the American administration and its unjust policies, as well as the American activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed by a Zionist bulldozer in Rafah in 2003."
"It is the same city that Bushnell paid with his life for putting pressure on his country’s government to prevent the criminal Zionist army from attacking it and committing massacres and violations there," Hamas wrote, throwing "full responsibility" for Bushnell's death on President Joe Biden's administration. "Due to its policy that supported the Nazi Zionist entity in its war of extermination against our Palestinian people, as he gave his life in order to shed light on the Zionist massacres and ethnic cleansing against our people in the Gaza Strip."
Hamas said Bushnell would remain "immortal" in the memory of Palestinians as a "symbol of the spirit of global human solidarity" with pro-Palestinian activists.
"The tragic accident that cost Pilot Bushnell his life is an expression of the growing state of anger among the American people who reject their country’s policy that contributes to the killing and extermination of our people, and who reject their government’s violation of universal human values, by providing cover to ensure the impunity of the entity and its Nazi leaders from punishment and accountability," Hamas added.
Prior to his Sunday suicide, Bushnell shared a link to a "Free Palestine" Twitch.TV channel where he live-streamed his self-immolation.
"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?'," Bushnell's post read. "The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now."
The White House has not issued a statement on Bushnell's death as of Tuesday morning.
