The family of a Turkish-American activist shot dead during an anti-settlement protest in the occupied West Bank on Saturday accused the Israeli army of her murder and demanded an “independent investigation.”
According to the UN, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was killed by gunfire from Israeli forces while she was taking part in a demonstration against Jewish settlements in Beita, near Nablus in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
“Her presence in our lives was brutally, unjustly and illegally taken away by the Israeli army,” the young woman’s family said in a statement. “Aysenur was peacefully defending justice when she was shot and killed,” they added, citing a video “showing that it (the bullet) came from an army sniper.”
“We call on President (Joe) Biden, Vice President (Kamala) Harris, and Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unjust killing of an American citizen and ensure that those responsible are fully held accountable.”
“An Israeli investigation is not enough”
The young woman, a member of the pro-Palestinian organization International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was in Beita to participate, according to the NGO, in a weekly demonstration against the expansion of Israeli settlements, deemed illegal in the eyes of international law.
The Israeli military said Friday that soldiers in the area “responded with gunfire toward the main instigator of the violence who threw stones at them and posed a threat.” It said it was “looking into reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of gunfire.”
On Saturday, the ISM dismissed as “false” allegations that activists from the NGO threw stones at the soldiers. “Aysenur was more than 200 meters from where the Israeli soldiers were, and there was no confrontation in the minutes before her death,” the organization added in a statement.
Israel’s main ally, Washington, on Friday deplored the “tragic” death of the American and called for an investigation. Her family, however, considered that “given the circumstances (…) of Aysenur’s death, an Israeli investigation is not sufficient.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned “a barbaric intervention by Israel” which he said cost the life of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi.
“The same balls”
On Saturday, the activist’s body wrapped in a blue cloth was lying in a hospital morgue in Nablus next to that of a 12-year-old Palestinian girl killed the day before near Beita, according to AFP images. The teenager was killed by Israeli soldiers’ gunfire, according to the Palestinian Authority.
“Both were killed by the same bullets,” Nablus Governor Ghassan Daghlas charged, referring to the Israeli bullets that he said killed the activist and the teenager. “We call on the international community to end this senseless war against Palestine,” he added.
Violence has flared in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, sparked by an attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israel on October 7. More than 660 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers since then, according to data from the Palestinian Health Ministry.
At least 23 Israelis, including soldiers, have died there in Palestinian attacks or military operations, according to official Israeli data.