The family of a Turkish-American woman shot dead while demonstrating against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank yesterday demanded an independent investigation into her death, accusing the Israeli military of killing her “violently.”
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was “shot in the head” while participating in a demonstration in Beita in the West Bank on Friday, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said.
“Her presence in our lives was taken needlessly, unlawfully and violently by the Israeli military,” Eygi’s family said in a statement.
Courtesy of the Eygi family / International Solidarity Movement via AP
“A US citizen, Aysenur was peacefully standing for justice when she was killed by a bullet that video shows came from an Israeli military shooter,” it said. “We call on [US] President [Joe] Biden, Vice President [Kamala] Harris and Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a US citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties.”
The Israeli military said its forces “responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them” during the protest.
Eygi was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian organization, and was in Beita on Friday for a weekly demonstration against Israeli settlements, the ISM said.
The group yesterday dismissed claims that its members threw rocks at Israeli forces as “false” and said the demonstration was peaceful.
“Aysenur was more than 200m away from where the Israeli soldiers were, and there were no confrontations there at all in the minutes before she was shot,” ISM said in a statement.
During Friday’s protest against the Eviatar settlement, Eygi was shot in the head, said the UN rights office and Rafidia Surgical Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Turkey said she was killed by “Israeli occupation soldiers,” with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemning the Israeli action as “barbaric.”
Washington called it a “tragic” event and has pressed its close ally Israel to investigate.
However, her family has demanded an independent probe.
“Given the circumstances of Aysenur’s killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate,” her family said.
Agence France-Presse footage yesterday showed Eygi’s body, wrapped in a blue cloth, kept in a morgue next to the body of a young girl who was killed the previous day in a separate incident in the West Bank.
The Palestinian health ministry said the 12-year-old Palestinian girl was shot and killed by “occupation [Israel] bullets” in Qaryut, near Beita.
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