Man sets himself on fire in Boston to protest Israeli offensive in Gaza

September 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –

A man set himself on fire outside the Israeli Consulate in Boston on Wednesday, apparently to protest the Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip.

The man set himself on fire at around 8.15pm on Wednesday. Nelson’s current condition is not known, but it has been confirmed that he was taken to hospital with serious burns.

Eyewitnesses have told ABC’s Boston affiliate that the man set himself on fire in front of the Four Seasons Hotel, and there are also security camera recordings that confirm this.

Another witness, Jeferson Zapata, told Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra that the man poured gasoline on himself before setting himself on fire. “I tried to throw water at him,” he explained.

Following the incident, a large contingent of police officers arrived at the scene and began collecting possible evidence and searching several vehicles in the area.

A video has appeared on social media in which a man who identifies himself as Matt Nelson expresses his intention to carry out “an extreme act of protest.” “We are all guilty of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. We are slaves to capitalism and the military-industrial complex. Most of us are too apathetic to care,” he explains.

In the video, he also calls on the US government to stop providing funds and weapons to “imprison and kill innocent Palestinians” and to pressure Israel to “end the genocide in Gaza.” “Democracy is supposed to serve the will of the people, not the interests of the rich. Let’s take back power. Free Palestine,” he says.

If confirmed, Nelson would be the third case of self-immolation in protests against the Gaza war. On December 1, an unidentified woman was hospitalized in critical condition after setting herself on fire with a Palestinian flag outside the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta in what police called an “extreme act of political protest.” Israeli Consul General Anat Sultan-Dadon criticized the action as an act of “hatred and incitement to hatred against Israel.”

On February 25, 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell, a retired soldier, doused himself with a flammable liquid, put on his uniform cap and set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, shouting “Free Palestine!” The Secret Service responded immediately, and an agent pointed a gun at him and ordered him to lie on the ground while he burned. He died the next day.