Key Points
- Israeli forces have reportedly killed a Turkish-American woman during a protest against settlement expansion.
- Palestinian and Turkish officials say 26-year-old activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was shot in the head.
- The Israeli military said troops had fired at a “chief instigator” who had thrown stones at soldiers.
Israeli forces shot dead a Turkish-American woman who was taking part in a protest against settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian and Turkish officials said.
The White House said it was deeply shocked by the death of recent college graduate and activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi and called on Israel to investigate.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said she was shot in the head and blamed the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Violence has escalated in the occupied West Bank, prompting condemnation from the UN Human Rights Office. Source: MONKEY / Nasser Ishtayeh
“I begged her not to go”
The Israeli military said its troops had fired at a male “chief instigator” who posed a threat by throwing stones at soldiers.
The military is investigating reports that a female foreigner “was killed as a result of shots fired in the area”.
“The details of the incident and the circumstances under which she was struck are currently under investigation,” the report said.
Palestinian officials described her as a 26-year-old activist from Seattle who held dual American and Turkish citizenship.
“I begged her not to go (to the West Bank), but she was deeply convinced that she wanted to participate in the tradition of bearing witness to the oppression of people and their dignified resilience,” Aria Fani, assistant professor of Middle Eastern languages and cultures at the University of Washington, told the Guardian.
Netanyahu’s office has not yet commented on the incident.
Washington ‘deeply concerned’
Fouad Nafaa, head of Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, told Reuters that Eygi arrived at the scene in critical condition with a serious head injury.
“We tried to resuscitate her but unfortunately she passed away,” he said.
The official Palestinian Authority news agency, WAFA, reported that the incident took place during a protest march by activists in Beita, a village near Nablus that has been the repeated target of attacks on Palestinians by Jewish settlers.
Eygi’s family described her as a “very passionate human rights activist” who had recently participated in protests on her university campus against US support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
The statement called on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to launch an independent U.S. investigation into her murder.
White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said Washington was “deeply shocked by the tragic death of an American citizen” in the West Bank.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan condemned Eygi’s death and said in a social media post that Turkey “will continue to work on all fronts to stop Israel’s policies of occupation and genocide.”
Israel denies that its actions in the occupied Palestinian territories amount to genocide.
Rashid Mahmoud Abdul Qader Sada, 23, was fatally shot during a settler raid in Jit, a Palestinian town in the northern occupied West Bank, amid rising Israeli violence. Source: MONKEY / Brendan Regens
Settler violence elsewhere
In another incident on Friday near Beita, in the village of Qaryut, a 13-year-old girl was killed by Israeli gunfire, Palestinian health officials said, after settlers attacked the village.
WAFA quoted the girl’s father as saying she was in their house when the shots were fired.
The Israeli military says it is investigating after troops fired into the air to prevent violent clashes between dozens of settlers and Palestinians in the area.
A surge in violent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has angered Israel’s Western allies, including the US. The US has imposed sanctions on a number of Israelis involved in the settler movement.
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