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Aysenur Ezgi Eyg: Israel says 'highly likely' IDF killed US-Turkish protester [1]
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Date: 2024-09
Israel says 'highly likely' its troops killed US-Turkish protester in West Bank
International Solidarity Movement Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was killed at a protest against Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank
The Israel military says a US-Turkish woman shot dead at a protest in the occupied West Bank last week was "highly likely hit indirectly and unintentionally" by its soldiers. Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, had been at a demonstration against Jewish settlement expansion in the town of Beita last Friday when she was shot by Israeli forces. The US secretary of state called Eygi's killing "unprovoked and unjustified", but President Joe Biden later said: "Apparently it was an accident. It [the bullet] ricocheted off the ground." Eygi's family, along with the UN human rights office, have called for a full and independent investigation into her killing.
In a brief statement summarising their investigation findings, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said the gunfire had not been "aimed at her, but aimed at the key instigator of the riot." They added: "The IDF expresses its deepest regret over the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi." However, the US - Israel's key ally - reacted angrily. Its Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said Israeli forces needed to "make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement." He said the IDF’s investigation appeared to support eyewitnesses' testimony that Ms Eygi had been protesting peacefully and thus her killing was “unprovoked and unjustified”. “No-one should be shot and killed for attending a protest, no-one should have to put their life at risk just for freely expressing their views,” Blinken told reporters shortly after Israel's release of the findings. Ms Eygi had arrived as a volunteer in the West Bank just a few days before she was killed. Her family has said her life "was taken needlessly, unlawfully and violently by the Israeli military".
EPA Hundreds attended Ms Eygi's funeral in the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday
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