The Israel Defense Forces said that indirect and unintentional gunfire from its troops likely killed Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, and expressed regret over her death.
Eygi, 26, was killed in the West Bank on Friday during a protest in the Palestinian village of Beita against the nearby Israeli settlement outpost of Evyatar, which is on lands the Palestinian residents claim as their own. A resident of Seattle, she was protesting with the International Solidarity Movement, a group that has long demonstrated in Palestinian areas against Israel.
Dozens of mourners gathered at a funeral procession for Eygi at Rafidia Hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday afternoon, where she was taken after she was shot.
The White House called for an investigation into her death, and the IDF said on Friday that its troops had fired at another protester who was throwing stones at its soldiers. The IDF said in a statement Tuesday following an initial inquiry into Eygi’s death that that gunfire is most likely what killed her. The statement said it requested to perform an autopsy.
“The inquiry found that it is highly likely that she was hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire which was not aimed at her, but aimed at the key instigator of the riot,” the statement said. “The incident took place during a violent riot in which dozens of Palestinian suspects burned tires and hurled rocks toward security forces at the Beita Junction.”
The statement added, “The IDF expresses its deepest regret over the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi.”
In a statement released on Saturday, Eygi’s family described her as a “fiercely passionate human rights activist” who protested “in solidarity with Palestinian civilians who continue to endure ongoing repression and violence.” The family called for an independent investigation into the circumstances of her death.
“We welcome the White House’s statement of condolences, but given the circumstances of Aysenur’s killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate,” the statement said. “We call on President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Secretary of State Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a U.S. citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties.”
More than 600 Palestinians have been killed and thousands arrested in Israeli military operations against suspected terrorists in the West Bank since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza nearly a year ago, a time during which dozens of Israelis have been killed in terror attacks in the West Bank and Israel, including three who were shot at a border crossing into Jordan on Sunday.
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