According to The New York Post, a person identified as a friend of Bushnell, 25, who was on active duty in the US Air Force, claimed that the dead soldier called him on February 24 after learning "classified information" about the US military.
The deceased soldier's friend argued that Bushnell "ranted and sounded fearful" about the information he had seen during the phone call. Bushnell's friend, who said that Bushnell was involved in the processing of intelligence data in the Air Force, claimed that some of the data was related to Israel's invasion of Gaza.
Bushnell's friend claimed that the deceased soldier told him about the documents he had seen showing that "the US military was involved in the genocide in Palestine and that there were soldiers in the tunnels." "He told me that we had troops in the area and that they killed many Palestinians there." The friend said he did not know why Bushnell shared the classified information with him, and argued that the dead soldier had never done anything like this before. "Suicide was not something Aaron would have done," the friend said.
According to CNN, the US Air Force confirmed that Bushnell was serving as a cyber defense operations specialist in the 70th intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance wing. Aaron Bushnell, an enlisted member of the US Air Force, set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., on February 25 to protest Israel's intensive bombardment of civilians in the Gaza Strip and US support for the attack. Hundreds of people gathered in front of the Israeli Embassy to mourn Bushnell, who lost his life.
