Biden administration responsible for death of US airman: Hamas

WASHINGTON

The Biden administration is responsible for the death of a US airman who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. to protest Israel's war on Gaza, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas said Monday.

"The administration of US President (Joe) Biden bears full responsibility for the death of US Army pilot Aaron Bushnell 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 in a statement.

Expressing its condolences and full solidarity with the family and friends of Bushnell, Hamas said he will "remain immortal" in the memory of the Palestinian people.

Bushnell died after lighting himself on fire Sunday afternoon in front of the Israeli Embassy to protest Israel’s ongoing war in the besieged Gaza Strip and US support for the offensive.

“I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m 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,” Bushnell said in a video recording that chronicled the fatal protest.

He can repeatedly be heard shouting "Free Palestine!" as flames engulf him before he collapses to the ground.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border incursion by Hamas, killing at least 29,782 people and causing mass destruction and shortages of necessities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed.

The conflict has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while most of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.