INTERNATIONAL – A death “tragic”condemns Washington. A young Turkish-American woman, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, was fatally wounded by a bullet to the head on Friday, September 6, during a demonstration against Israeli colonization in Beita, in the north of the occupied West Bank. The Israeli army admitted to having opened fire.
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Le HuffPost takes stock of the circumstances of the activist’s death as the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza spreads to the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israeli forces since 1967.
• Who was Aysenur Ezgi Eygi?
The 26-year-old woman, who is of Turkish and American nationality, was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM – International Solidarity Movement), a pro-Palestinian organization.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was in Beita, near Nablus, to take part in a weekly protest against the expansion of Israeli settlements in the area, Neta Golan, co-founder of the NGO, told AFP. It was in this context that she was fatally wounded by a bullet to the head, according to Rafidia hospital.
• Abbott “by Israeli security forces”
Witness to the scene, an ISM activist who requested anonymity spoke of a “shoot to kill”telling AFP that he had seen “blood flowing from the head” from the victims.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi “arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound to the head and we pronounced her dead around 2:30 p.m.”said Dr. Fouad Nafaa, director of Rafidia Hospital in Nablus.
According to the UN Human Rights Office, “Israeli security forces killed the American activist (…) by firing a bullet that hit her in the head.”
The Israeli army said that soldiers in the area had “responded with shots fired at the main instigator of the violence who had thrown stones at the (soldiers) and posed a threat to them”. IDF “is examining reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of gunfire in the area”she added.
• His family is demanding an investigation “independent”
The victim’s family on Saturday accused the Israeli army of killing her and demanded a “independent investigation”. And lamented: “His presence in our lives was brutally, unjustly and illegally taken away.” by Israeli military forces.
“Aysenur was peacefully defending justice when she was shot and killed”she added, citing a video “showing that it (the bullet) came from an Israeli army shooter.”
Judging that an Israeli investigation is not enough, the relatives demanded “President (Joe) Biden and Vice President (Kamala) Harris and Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unjust killing of an American citizen and ensure that those responsible are fully held accountable.”
• Condemnations from the United States and Turkey
Israel’s main ally, the United States, mourned the death “tragic” of the young woman and demanded an investigation, according to the White House. “When we have more information (…) we will act accordingly”Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
For his part, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has “condemned Israel’s barbaric intervention against a demonstration against the occupation in the West Bank” which according to him cost the life of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi.
Violence has flared in the West Bank since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, sparked by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israel on October 7. More than 660 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since then by gunfire from Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to data from the Palestinian Health Ministry.
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