Hamas has expressed condolences to the US airman Aaron Bushnell’s family and friends, likening Bushnell to US activist Rachel Corrie who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer while trying to protect a Palestinian home in Gaza from demolition in 2003.
Aaron Bushnell, 25, an active member of the United States military has died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC in an apparent act of protest against Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
“We, in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), express our heartfelt condolences and our full solidarity with the family and friends of the U.S. pilot Aaron Bushnell, whose name has been immortalized as a defender of humanitarian values and the plight of the oppressed Palestinian people who are suffering due to the U.S. administration and its unjust policies, like the U.S. activist Rachel Corrie who was crushed by a Zionist bulldozer in 2003 in Rafah, the same city for which Bushnell paid for with his life to pressure his country’s government to prevent the criminal Zionist army from attacking it and committing massacres and violations in it,” read a statement by Hamas.
“The Biden administration bears full responsibility for the death of Aaron Bushnell as a result of its policies of supporting the Zionist entity in its extermination war against Palestinians,” the Palestine movement said in a statement.
The group added that Bushnell’s name will remain “eternal” in the memory of Palestinians and all the free people of the world.
“The heroic pilot Aaron Bushnell will remain immortal in the memory of our Palestinian people and the free people of the world, and a symbol of the spirit of global humanitarian solidarity with our people and their just cause,” it added.
It said Bushnell’s act of protest reflects the growing US public anger against the Biden administration over its backing of the war on Gaza.
“The tragic incident that cost pilot Bushnell his life is an expression of the growing anger among the people in the U.S. who reject their country’s policy that contributes to the killing and genocide of our people, and rejects their government’s violation of global humanitarian values, by providing cover to ensure the impunity of the Nazi entity and its leaders from punishment and accountability,” said Hamas.
Aaron Bushnell, 25, wanted the world to know that he did not support the US’s role in Israel’s war on Gaza.
“I will not be complicit in genocide”, he said, as he set himself on fire in a protest outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC, sustaining injuries that later claimed his life.
He livestreamed his protest on Twitch where viewers say his last words were, “Free Palestine”.
