On February 25, 2024, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old serviceman of the United States Air Force, committed an act of self-immolation outside the front gate of the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C. During the incident, Bushnell said he was protesting "what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers" and declared that he "will no longer be complicit in genocide" before dousing himself with flammable liquid and lighting himself on fire. As he burned, Bushnell repeatedly shouted "Free Palestine!" while a police officer pointed a gun at him and local emergency services arrived on scene.