Alex MacDonald, Umar Farooq & Ragip Soylu
Middle East Eye / September 6, 2024
Activist at the scene tells MEE 26-year old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi’s shooting was ‘deliberate’ targeting.
An American-Turkish activist has been shot dead by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, died of her wounds after participating in a protest against illegal Jewish settlement expansion in the town of Beita, south of Nablus, the Palestinian WAFA agency reported.
An activist who was with Eygi at the time told Middle East Eye that she and other volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement had been attending the weekly demonstration at Beita.
The activist said they retreated from soldiers, who had shot tear gas into the crowd. Then two rounds of live ammunition were fired at the group, the activist said, one of which struck Eygi in the head.
“When she was shot, she was standing there doing absolutely nothing with one other woman – it was a deliberate shot because they shot from a very, very, very far distance,” said the activist, who did not want to be identified.
“It was a deliberate shot to the head.”
The Israeli army confirmed the incident, saying it had “responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them”.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller offered condolences to her family and said they were “urgently gathering more information” on the incident, adding they had “no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens”.
“We are aware of the tragic death of an American citizen, Aysenur Eygi, today in the West Bank,” Miller said in a statement given to MEE.
“We offer our deepest condolences to her family and loved ones. We are urgently gathering more information about the circumstances of her death, and will have more to say as we learn more. We have no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens.”
Footage seen by MEE showed Eygi’s bloodied head being bandaged, and another video of her being taken to an ambulance in an olive grove.
Fouad Nafaa, head of Al-Rafidia Hospital in nearby Nablus, told Reuters that the activist arrived in a very critical condition with a serious head wound.
“We tried to perform a resuscitation operation on her, but unfortunately, she died,” he said.
The Turkish foreign ministry described Eygi’s death as a “murder committed by the Netanyahu government”.
“Israel is trying to intimidate everyone who comes to the aid of the Palestinians and fights peacefully against genocide,” said the ministry, who said Eygi was a Turkish citizen.
“This policy of violence will not yield results.”
West Bank offensive
Israeli forces launched a major operation in the West Bank on 28 August.
On Friday, Palestinian media said a 13-year-old named Bana Amjad Bakr died after being shot in the chest by Israeli forces in Qaryut village, south of Nablus.
The offensive, which has resulted in at least 39 Palestinian deaths so far, involved soldiers supported by armoured vehicles and bulldozers targeting cities and towns across the occupied territory.
WAFA said Eygi had been involved in a campaign to protect farmers from Israeli settler violence, which has soared since the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel and ensuing war on Gaza.
She is the third member of the International Solidarity Movement, which was founded in 2001 to support Palestinians in the occupied territories through nonviolent protest, to have been killed by Israel.
Rachel Corrie was crushed by a bulldozer in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on 16 March 2003, while Tom Hurndall was shot dead in Gaza in January 2004.
Oncu Keceli, a Turkish foreign ministry spokesperson, told MEE they would be following up on Eygi’s case from a “legal and consular perspective” and were looking to see her killers brought to justice.
“Her family will decide where her body will be transferred and where she will be buried,” he said.
“If it is decided that the burial will be carried out in Turkey, consular services will be provided by our country.”
Alex MacDonald is a reporter at Middle East Eye
Umar A. Farooq is a journalist based in Washington DC
Ragip Soylu is MEE’s Turkey Bureau Chief, based in Ankara
