File picture of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, the American who was reportedly shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank
| Photo Credit: AP
After Israeli soldiers reportedly killed an American woman demonstrating against settlements in the West Bank on Friday, the United States government confirmed Aysenur Eygi’s death but did not say whether the recent graduate of the University of Washington, who was also a Turkish citizen, had been shot by Israeli troops.
The White House said it was “deeply disturbed” by the killing of a U.S. citizen and called on Israel to investigate what happened.
According to two witnesses, she was shot while posing no threat to Israeli forces and during a moment of calm after clashes earlier in the afternoon. Two Palestinian doctors said the 26-year-old from Seattle was shot in the head.
The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an “instigator of violent activity” in the area of the protest.
The killing came amid a surge of violence in the West Bank, with increasing Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis, attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and heavier military crackdowns on Palestinian protests.
Eygi, a volunteer with the activist group International Solidarity Movement, was attending a weekly demonstration against settlement expansion that has been held for years and has often brought Israeli crackdowns and protester stone-throwing.
Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli participating in Friday’s protest, said the shooting occurred shortly after dozens of Palestinians and international activists held a communal prayer on a hillside outside the northern West Bank town of Beita overlooking the Israeli settlement of Evyatar.
Soldiers surrounded the prayer, and clashes soon broke out, with Palestinians throwing stones and troops firing tear gas and live ammunition, Mr. Pollak said.
The protesters and activists retreated and clashes subdued, he said. He then watched as two soldiers on the roof of a nearby home trained a gun in the group’s direction and fired.
He said he saw Eygi “lying on the ground, next to an olive tree, bleeding to death.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. was “intensely focused” on determining what happened and that “we will draw the necessary conclusions and consequences from that.”
In a post on X, the Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned “this murder carried out by” the Israeli government. Turkey will work “to ensure that those who killed our citizen is brought to justice,” ministry spokesperson Oncu Keceli said.
Human rights groups say Israeli soldiers who kill Palestinians — or their foreign supporters — rarely are held to account. The Israeli military says it investigates such instances and takes action if there is criminal wrongdoing.
Published – September 07, 2024 01:21 pm IST