Horror moment pro-Palestine protester sets himself on FIRE outside the White House in front of horrified bystanders
THIS is the horrifying moment a pro-Palestine protester sets himself on fire in front of the White House as onlookers desperately rush to his aid.
Chilling footage shows photojournalist Samuel Mena Jr. wincing and screaming in pain after setting his left arm ablaze at a protest on Saturday.
Mena is captured holding onto his left arm as it’s engulfed by massive flames, holding it up high to grab the attention of fellow protesters.
Self-proclaimed “visual storyteller” Mena waved his burning arm through the air shouting, among his screams of pain, “misinformation”.
Mena cried: “I’m a journalist, and I said it was okay.”
Shortly after the journalist sets his arm ablaze, bystanders desperately hurried to douse him in water and extinguish the flames.
A video captured after the fire was put out shows the protester standing with cops swarming him while a fellow protester frantically pours water over him.
His arm appears to be pink color with big patches of pasty white – suggesting it was severely burnt in the blaze.
Mena wrote on his website a justification for his actions at the protest, talking about issues he takes with “objectivity as it relates to journalism” over the Gaza war.
He said: “To the 10 thousand children in Gaza that have lost a limb in this conflict, I give my left arm to you.
“I pray my voice was able to raise up yours, and that your smiles never disappear.”
According to cops, Mena lit himself on fire just outside of the White House at around 5:45pm on Saturday.
It is almost one year on from when the world watched in horror as terrorists rampaged across southern Israel, slaughtering more than 1,000 innocents and taking more than 250 hostages.
In February an active duty member of the US Air Force set himself on fire outside the Israel Embassy in Washington, DC and died.
Aaron Bushnell screamed “Free Palestine” during an apparent protest of the Israel-Hamas War before collapsing outside the embassy.
The self-immolation was reportedly live-streamed on Twitch, showing Aaron dressed in army fatigues and walking to the embassy gates.
Before lighting himself on fire, Aaron declared on stream that he “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.”
Video of the horror death showed him dousing himself in a liquid from a metal bottle before lighting himself on fire and shouting his support for the Middle Eastern nation.
He burned for about one minute before collapsing to the ground.
Officers with the US Secret Service extinguished the flames and Aaron was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
A DC police spokesperson announced the following day that Aaron had died. He was 25 years old.
It comes as Israel killed two top Hamas commanders and destroyed a key Hezbollah command centre as its leader has slammed France.
The man widely thought to replace Hezbollah’s leader is also missing as Israel is set to strike back after Tuesday’s missile barrage.
Hamas field commander Saeed Attallah Ali was killed along with his wife and two daughters in an air raid on a refugee camp in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli.
And hours later another strike killed Hamas terror planner Mohammed Hussein al-Lawis in the Bekaa Valley town of Saadnayel.
The pair were the latest kingpins taken out as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to approve a “serious and significant” attack on arch enemy Iran.
It comes as Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu addressed his country and slammed French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to call for an arms embargo as “shameful”.
He said: “What a disgrace, let me tell you this: Israel will win with or without their support but their shame will continue long after the war has won.”
His speech came as Israel launched a separate blitz in a Hezbollah command centre on Friday night.
The IDF has confirmed it carried out a strike next to a hospital in southern Lebanon.
The command centre was located in a mosque adjacent to the Salah Ghandour Hospital.
In a statement, the IDF said: “The command centre was used by the Hezbollah terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel.”
It said notices were sent to residents “demanding that any military activity carried out from the hospitals should stop immediately” ahead of the attack.