 My name is Aaron Bushnell. I am an active duty member of the United States Air Force and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. Thus began the final message of Aaron Bushnell who self-immolated to protest Israel's genocidal war on Gaza. As he fell victim to the flames, his last words were free Palestine. Aaron Bushnell sacrificed his life for a cause he believed in. The same cause has led millions of people across the world to take to the streets time and again, rejecting Israel's brutality and calling for the lives and rights of Palestinian people to be safeguarded. However, those in power in the United States and other countries in the West have refused to heed these calls. They have repeated the same tired old talking points, justifying Israel's horrific actions as self-defense. They have vacuously and vaguely talked about peace while taking actions that explicitly permit war to continue. What would I do if my country was committing genocide? That was a question Aaron Bushnell asked. That is a question that is staring at the faces of the leaders of many countries today. Whether they have the integrity to answer this question is another matter altogether. In today's episode of Daily Deep Brief, we go to Abdul to talk about the life and times of Aaron Bushnell, the responses to his act of protest and the situation in Gaza today. Abdul, thank you so much for joining us. Aaron Bushnell's sacrifice, the act of protest, one of the most powerful acts of protest since the war began. People have for instance pointed out to many other incidents in throughout history. But before we go into some of the other aspects of what the reception, what has been the kind of response and the large issues about the war itself, what do we know about this young man who committed this act? What do we know about Aaron Bushnell and what happened with him? Well Prashant, as per the limited information which we have in the media and through his social media posts, which is there in public, apparently Bushnell was working with the US Air Force. He was of course working on desk, of course not in the field. And he has been quite, as per the reports which are coming from his friends and close people in his vicinity, they claim that he was one of those disciplined cadres who believed in the, he had a very strong feeling of what is right and wrong. He believed in, though he was working in the Air Force, he had certain positions which were quite unmilitary like, which were quite politically, you can say pro people, pro kind of, you can say policies which are opposed to the kind of role US has been playing all across the world. And he has a very strong feeling of kind of solidarity with the people in Palestine who have been suffering because of the war which is going on since October 7 and not only since October 7 for all the occupation and the role the US has been playing in sustaining that occupation. He has a very strong, had a very strong opinion against all that thing and he was opposed to all that thing. And what he did basically on 26th of February, basically because of his anger against the policy which the US has been following and Israel has been, what Israel has been doing inside Gaza. And you can say his helplessness to oppose it in any other way. He went to the extreme of kind of sacrificing his life in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC. And while the video which has come from, which was recorded at the time of his kind of sacrifice is basically shows that he says that what US is doing in with the people in Palestine, he can no longer be complicit with that particular act of genocide. And he wanted that his sacrifice should give a message that such a policy should be changed. It should no longer be carried forward. And the genocide in Gaza should stop and Palestine should be free. Right, of course, this comes at a time like I was saying earlier that millions of people across the world taking to protests. In fact, after this incident took place, another earlier report came to light of somebody else who had also come with, staged a protest similarly in Atlanta, I believe, outside a similar facility, so to speak. And it kind of shows, I think, even within the United States, but across the world, the kind of very powerful sentiment that is there. But one thing we have sort of seen is how both the US media has sort of tried to, it seems that the media is desperate to avoid the fact that this was an act of protest. They have tried every kind of interpretation except stating the fact very clearly, which is that his was an act, it was an extreme act of protest against this world. Exactly. In fact, if you see even the leading newspapers, the quote unquote, well-reputed newspapers, which are considered the newspapers of record, basically even they, their kind of reporting they have done is basically an attempt to hide the actual facts from the people that are tempted. Of course, thanks to the social media and other alternative media, which is there, the facts cannot be suppressed the way it could have been otherwise. But still, they tried very hard to do that. And of course, that shows that how complicit they are in the entire process of sustaining the occupation in Palestine, in basically aiding in Israel's war against Palestinians. And this is not only in this incident, and by the way, this exposes their complexity, but they have been doing it for ages. If you see how, for example, the killing of a Palestinian girl is reported as if a Palestinian person is killed accidentally and there was no responsible party. Obviously, Israeli, Israeli armed forces are responsible for the killing of a person. But even such headlines are also manipulated in order to hide their kind of the war, the brutality of war. This is an attempt to dehumanize Palestinians and in order, in an attempt to basically kind of create a fake legitimacy for the occupation to continue. And in fact, in fact, justifying the brutal acts against Palestinians in one way or another. So media, not only in the US, by the way, even the several other newspapers and well-known media houses in other countries, in Western Europe, for example, have carried out similar headlines, kind of attempt to hide it. And one should also see it as an attempt to basically help the US state and the US forces in a way to kind of have less guilt about what they are doing and how it is making the people in Israel, sorry, in US desperate kind of, because this is really something which they do not agree with. If you see the kind of protests which are happening all across the US, of course, they do not like the involvement of their state. In the act of genocide, they do not kind of condone the acts of genocide committed by Israelis. But if you keep all lying to them that this is happening with a particular context that the Palestinians are responsible for what is happening to them, Hamas is responsible for what is happening to them, in basically, it's an attempt to basically blame the victims and to kind of seek some kind of some kind of attempt to kind of wash away their own guilt. And that's what the media has been doing. This is an attempt to kind of justify the war, justify the complicity of the US administration in the war and also to kind of wash away their own guilt. So this is happening for a very long time and Bushnell's sacrifice, the way it has been portrayed, it kind of makes it much more obvious for us to see. And moving on to the war itself, it's coming close to 145 days, I believe. The death toll is around almost 30,000. So what are the contours of the Israeli assault right now? What has been happening on the ground? And now, after that, we'll move on to talk to the ceasefire also. Well, as per the latest reports which are coming from Gaza, of course, the situation is not different from what we have discussed before. In fact, it has become worse, particularly because of the tremendous choking of the humanitarian aid, which was for a while was flowing, not very, there was no improvement, but at least whatever was the condition a few weeks ago, it has deteriorated further. And this goes contrary to what International Court of Justice has said. So ever since the International Court of Justice had opined that Palestinians should have more access to humanitarian aid, the humanitarian aid has gone down. Israel has repeatedly said that they will carry out attacks on Rafa, and they have not kind of gone back to that. Despite the pressure created by the global community, by the neighboring Arab countries, and other humanitarian groups from all across the world, that this should not be done, the attacks in different other parts of Gaza continues. As you rightly pointed out, the Palestinians killed every 24 hours, the number increases many folds, and it is now reaching 30,000, almost 30,000 Palestinians have been killed. Apart from Gaza, if you see, there are also attacks, increased attacks inside West Bank. In last few hours, there are reports coming that there are attacks to certain areas carried out by the Israeli military, in which a couple of Palestinians have been killed, and thousands of, now, by the way, one crucial fact that if there is an as-is-fair deal, there will be exchange of prisoners. But before that happens, the number of Palestinians inside the Israeli jail is basically raising 10,000 now, which is before the war, we should remember that it was less than 5,000, so almost doubled. So yeah, so that is the situation on the ground. More Palestinians are being killed. The humanitarian aid is not, Israel has been depriving Palestinians from the basic humanitarian aid. In fact, there are reports coming from the northern Gaza, starvation, people again, who went back to northern Gaza, despite the war, there are reports coming that they are now moving back again to the southern parts. In order to get access to, it is considered that in southern parts, because it is closer to Rafa border, there is greater access to humanitarian aid, and so on and so forth. So this is the desperate situation on the ground in Gaza at the moment, when the ceasefire talks are going on. Harid Abdel, finally, if you could tell us what exactly the talks that are going on, what seem to be the details that are emerging as of now, the possible conditions from both sides? Well, very few details are there in the public domain as per now. As per the reports, there will be a temporary ceasefire. Of course, this is not a permanent ceasefire. At maximum, the media says 40 days, considering the Ramadan is coming, and therefore Israel has agreed to kind of ceasefire during this one month and additional days. In exchange, of course, of hostages, the numbers which are reported in the media is 40 hostages against 400 Palestinian prisoners inside the Israeli jail. That will be the term. Apart from that, of course, Israel also agreed to increase the flow of humanitarian aid. But one should remember that the amount of humanitarian aid which was flowing before a few weeks ago has already gone down to a very basic level. Very few trucks, around 90 trucks, even less than nine trucks are allowed every day against the 150 or something odd trucks were moving a few weeks earlier. So even if Israel says that the amount of humanitarian aid will be increased, we do not know exactly how much it will increase. Will it go back to 150 again, which will not be an increase in actual terms. So these are the terms which are there in the public domain. Of course, Hamas has said, unlike what Biden was claiming that by Monday, there will be a ceasefire on the ground. But Hamas today, sorry, Hamas on Tuesday said that it may may be premature to say that on Monday, there will be ceasefire because they are not very happy with the terms which are there with them. Of course, but they still the talk is going on. And there is a hope that there will be some kind of ceasefire deal agreed in a few in couple of days from now. Abdul, thank you so much for all that updates. That's all we have in today's episode. We'll be back with a fresh daily debrief tomorrow. In the meantime, do visit our website peoplesdispatch.org. Follow us on all the social media platforms. And if you're watching this on YouTube, please hit that subscribe button.