By Janet Ekstract ISTANBUL – On September 6, a 26-year-old Turkish-American Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was killed in the occupied West Bank, the U.S. State Department announced. The killing was also reported by the Palestinian news agency Wafa and a hospital official and took place in Mount Sbeih in Beita, south of Nablus. According to two eyewitnesses, Eygi was shot in the head by Israeli forces using live ammunition to disperse those protesting against Jewish settlement expansion in the town of Beita. Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in a statement, said they are “looking into reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of shots fired in the area.” The statement said that Israeli forces in the vicinity of Beita in the northern West Bank “responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them.” Meanwhile, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller in a statement said that the U.S. is “aware of the tragic death of an American citizen, Aysenur Eygi, today in the West Bank.” Press reports said that copies of Eygi’s passport were circulated online and that she was born in Turkiye. The Turkish Foreign Ministry confirmed she was a dual citizen. Miller said: “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.” A volunteer with ISM and an eyewitness, Jonathan Pollak, said the shooting happened 30 minutes after protesters had already dispersed and when there were no active clashes taking place. Pollack said that foreign volunteers including Eygi were simply standing and observing at a distance of 200 yards from the Israeli military.
Meanwhile, the head of Rafidia Hospital in Nablus Fouad Nafaa, told Reuters news agency that Eygi arrived at the hospital in critical condition with a serious head injury. Nafaa said “We tried to perform a resuscitation operation on her, but unfortunately, she died.” Eyewitnesses said Eygi was killed when Israeli forces fired live ammunition, stun grenades and tear gas at demonstrators, Wafa news reported, quoting local sources. Pollak who found Eygi, told Al Jazeera that he found her “lying on the ground beneath an olive grove, bleeding to death.”
Photo : AA
