A man set himself on fire Sunday afternoon outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, according to the Washington Metropolitan Police Department.
US Secret Service agents extinguished the fire in front of the embassy in northwest Washington around 1:00 p.m., reported Vito Maggiolo, spokesman for the city’s fire department. The man was taken to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries and remains in critical condition.
Police also investigated a nearby suspicious vehicle for explosives, but Sean Hickman, a police spokesman, said the scene had been cleared by 4 p.m. Officials from the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had worked with Washington’s explosive munitions. disposal unit to investigate the incident.
No embassy staff were injured and all were accounted for, according to Tal Naim, a spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington.
The embassy has been the scene of sustained protests against the war in Gaza as the civilian death toll in the devastated enclave continues to rise, with more than 29,000 dead, according to local Health Ministry officials.
In December, a protester committed self-immolation outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta in what police said was “likely an extreme act of political protest.”