A 26-year-old Turkish-American activist died on Friday, Sept. 6, after an Israeli sniper shot her while she was participating in a protest against illegal Israeli settlement expansion in the town of Beita, south of Nablus.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a recent graduate of the University of Washington, was struck by a live bullet to the head during the demonstration. Eyewitnesses said that the protester was not posing any threat at the time of the shooting, which occurred after a period of relative calm following earlier clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers.
An activist who was with Eygi at the time told the Middle East Eye that she and other volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) had been attending the weekly demonstration. According to the source, 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 far distance," said the activist, who did not want to be identified. "It was a deliberate shot to the head."
Two Palestinian doctors confirmed that Eygi was indeed shot in the head and efforts to save her life were unsuccessful. Fouad Nafaa, head of the Rafidia hospital in nearby Nablus, told reporters 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 Israeli army confirmed the incident, saying it had "responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks” at them during a protest and that it was looking into reports that a foreign national was killed.
U.S. 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 Middle East Eye. "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."
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. "This policy of violence will not yield results."
Eygi's family demands an individual probe into the "killing"
The family of the shooting victim said that an Israeli investigation was not enough "given the circumstances." They want the United States government to handle the probe.
"We call on President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a U.S. citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties,” said the family.
United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric also called for a "full investigation. It said that "civilians must be protected at all times."
U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen said Eygi is the third American to be killed in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war started and that the Biden administration "has not been doing enough to pursue justice and accountability on their behalf."
3 U.S. citizens have now been killed in the West Bank in 11 months. There MUST be justice & accountability. The Netanyahu gvt hasn't provided that & the Biden Admin needs to do more to obtain it.
Those responsible must be held accountable & the DOJ must take action if necessary: https://t.co/QTja0vFzkN pic.twitter.com/wTDS0AEJzl
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) September 6, 2024
"It is unfortunate but it is not unprecedented," American lawyer and Palestinian rights activist Tarek Khalil told Al Jazeera. "It is another incident, another horrific killing of an innocent person that is protesting."
Earlier this year, an off-duty Israeli police officer and a settler opened fire and killed 17-year-old U.S. citizen Tawfiq Ajaq near his ancestral village of al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya. An investigation into the case is still ongoing.
In 2022, an Israeli sniper shot U.S. citizen and Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was reporting at the time in the Jenin refugee camp.
The killings came amid an intensification of violence in the West Bank following the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023. The West Bank has seen a sharp increase in Israeli military raids, attacks by Palestinian militants, and violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinians. (Related: TWISTED: David Friedman wants U.S. to divert $1B in humanitarian aid for Palestinians to help Israel fully annex West Bank.)
According to Palestinian health officials, over 690 Palestinians have been killed in the region since the conflict escalated. Eygi's death is one of several recent incidents involving the deaths of foreign nationals in the region.
Head over to IsraelCollapse.com to read the latest updates on the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.
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