US airman Aaron Bushnell loved show-tune karaoke and “The Lord of the Rings’’ — and gave away his cat and a fridge full of root beer before he fatally lit himself on fire over the Gaza war, pals say.

“I hope you’ll understand. I love you,” Bushnell, 25, texted a friend Sunday, according to the Washington Post — 12 minutes before setting himself ablaze in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, while screaming, “Free Palestine!”

“This doesn’t even make sense, but I feel like I’m going to miss you,” added the Massachusetts native, who grew up in a strict religious sect.

Before he killed himself — streaming the horrific event live — Bushnell also sent a copy of his will to the pal.

The Air Force cyber defense specialist left his cat to a neighbor and his stock of root beer to the friend.

The unidentified friend said the pair had talked on the phone two weeks before about how they were both anarchists — and the need for sacrifice.

Bushnell did not mention anything violent at the time, the source said.

In fact, in January, the Air Force IT specialist appeared especially carefree at a going-away party for him in San Antonio, Texas, where he was leaving for an assignment in Ohio.

Pals took him out for karaoke, which he loved, along with the J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy series “Lord of the Rings.”

Bushnell sang hits from the musical “Les Miserables,’’ of which he was a big fan and also Mandy Moore’s “Wind in My Hair’’ based on Disney movie “Tangled,’’ friends told the outlet.

“I got a smile on my face, and I’m walking on air!’’ Busnhell crooned.

What to know about Aaron Bushnell — the Air Force airman who set himself on fire to protest Israel's war on Hamas

• US Air Force member Aaron Bushnell, 25, died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC on Feb. 25, 2024 in a protest against Israel’s war against Hamas.
• “I will no longer be complicit in genocide [in Gaza]. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest,” Bushnell said before repeatedly shouting “Free Palestine!”
• Bushnell died hours later from his injuries after being brought to a hospital by firefighters.
• “Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’” the airman wrote in a Facebook post right before his self-immolation. “The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”
• The 25-year-old grew up in Massachusetts and had been stationed in San Antonio, Texas. He described himself on LinkedIn as an “aspiring software engineer.”
• Bushnell gave away his cat and his a fridge full of root beer to friends before his passing, according to the Washington Post. 

But friends also described a young man who had grown increasingly disillusioned with the military and his country and its social ills, particularly after the cop-brutality death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.

Bushnell — who gave a thumb’s up to two Ohio anarchy groups on his Facebook page — grew to take a stand against all state-sanctioned violence and even mulled leaving the military before his enlistment time ran out, said a pal, Levi Pierpont, who told the outlet he had a lunch of buttered chicken with him last month in Ohio.

Other friends said they discussed the Gaza war with the airman but had no idea what lengths he would go to protest it.

Lupe Barboza, 32, said she met Bushnell at a socialist-group event in San Antonio in 2022 and he also was hellbent on helping the local homeless.

“He knows that he has privilege as a white man and a member of the military,” she told the outlet.

Pierpont, 23, who met Bushnell in basic training, said his friend decided to tough it out in the Air Force because he was close to his end date of service in May and the course in Ohio would help him transition out of military service.

The pal said Bushnell told him he hoped to get a private-sector job that would earn him enough money to allow him to continue his political activism.

Another friend, Sam Osta, 55, who said he met Bushnell at a protest at the Lincoln Memorial in 2022, attended a memorial for his buddy outside the Israeli embassy Monday.

“I wish I would have known. I would have stopped him,’’ Osta said of Bushnell, who ended up dying seven hours after setting himself on fire while dressed in his military camouflage. “His life means a lot, and it’s horrifying what happened.”