A 26-year-old American woman was shot dead while participating in a protest against Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank on Friday.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who was a citizen of the Unites States and Turkey, was shot in the head by the Israeli Defense Forces, local media and witness reported.
Ezgi Eygi was attending a demonstration in Beita, near Nablus in the northern West Bank, and later died of her wounds. She arrived in the area on Tuesday to volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement as part of a campaign to protect Palestinian farmers, Al Jazeera reported.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew wrote on X that they were informed of Ezgi Eygi’s death. “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,” Lew wrote.
The Israeli military said the IDF is investigating reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of gunfire in the area. According to them, the IDF responded with fire at “a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them,” but the details of the incident and the circumstances under which she was hit are under investigation.
Ezgi Eygi’s death came after a major Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank. Thousands of residents were driven from their homes during the nine-day operation, and at least 21 Palestinians were killed, the Palestinian health ministry reported.
In 2022, the Israeli Defense Forces shot dead one Palestinian-American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh. Israeli ministers initially cast confusion over who killed the journalist. Later, Israel accepted responsibility and apologized, though Israel has refused to cooperate with FBI and International Criminal Court investigations into her death. In October, a shrine to Abu Akleh was bulldozed.
Ezgi Eygi is the third International Solidarity Movement volunteer killed in the Palestinian territories. In 2003, activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer and in 2004 British photographer Tom Hurndall was shot by an Israeli sniper in the Gaza strip.
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