Aysenur Eygi: Israel says it is ‘highly likely’ that its forces shot dead American activist

CNN
—

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has called for “fundamental changes” in the actions of Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank following the killing of American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi at a protest rally last week.

Blinken's sharp rebuke came after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday that it was “highly likely” that Eygi was “indirectly and unintentionally hit by IDF fire.”

In its initial investigation into the incident, the Israeli army said the shot was not aimed at the activist, but at the “main instigator” of a “violent riot” at the Beita junction, where Palestinians burned tires and threw stones at Israeli security forces. The alleged instigator was not named.

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM), where Eygi was a volunteer, said its protest on September 6 was peaceful.

At a press conference in London on Tuesday, Blinken said Eygi's killing was “unprovoked and unjustified” and called for a change in the rules of engagement of Israeli forces operating in the West Bank.

“Nobody, nobody should be shot for participating in a demonstration. Nobody should have to risk their life just for expressing their opinion,” he said. “Now we have the second American citizen killed by Israeli security forces. That is not acceptable. That must change. And we will make that clear to the highest ranking members of the Israeli government.”

Blinken added that the United States has “long had” reports that Israeli forces have ignored violence by extremist settlers against Palestinians, as well as reports of excessive use of force by Israeli forces against Palestinians.

The violence resulting from the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 has also reached the occupied West Bank in recent months.

In recent months, the United States has imposed a series of sanctions aimed at combating violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.

Israeli forces launched a major offensive in several parts of the territory last month, flattening highways and razing buildings. On Tuesday, at least two Palestinians – a man and a woman – were killed in an Israeli military raid in the town of Tulkarem, according to the Health Ministry in Ramallah.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah, Israeli troops and settlers have killed 692 Palestinians, including 158 children, in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem since October. The figures do not distinguish between militants and civilians.

The 26-year-old activist's family said they were “deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional” and reiterated their call for the US government to conduct an independent investigation into her death.

Eygi, who was born in Turkey, was shot while taking part in a weekly protest against an Israeli settlement near the Palestinian village of Beita. All Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law.

She had recently graduated from the University of Washington and was volunteering for the same pro-Palestinian activist group as US citizen Rachel Corrie, who was killed in 2003 while trying to stop an Israeli bulldozer from demolishing Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.

Eygi's family, who had previously blamed Israel for her killing, said the findings of the Israeli investigation were “totally inadequate.” “This can only be misconstrued as a deliberate, targeted and precise attack by the military on an unarmed civilian,” the family said.

The ISM also rejected Israel's “flimsy claim” that Eygi was accidentally hit by Israeli fire, calling the slain activist “one of the hundreds of thousands of martyrs Israel has killed over decades of ethnic cleansing, expulsion and genocide.”

“The military's portrayal of events is blindly based on the version of events of the accomplices and thus completely contradicts the statements of numerous eyewitnesses whom the military has not even contacted,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday.

“All eyewitnesses said immediately after the murder that the scene where Aysenur was killed was completely quiet and that there was no reason to open fire, let alone directly hit a woman who was standing peacefully in an olive grove.”