UN calls for full inquiry into West Bank shooting
'I tried to stop the bleeding': West Bank shooting eyewitness
Michael Sheils McNamee
BBC News Published 7 September 2024,
The United Nations has called for a "full investigation" into the killing of a US-Turkish woman in the occupied West Bank during a protest on Friday.
Local media reported that Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was shot dead by Israeli forces as she took part in a weekly protest against Jewish settlement expansion in the town of Beita near Nablus.
Israel's military said it was "looking into reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of shots fired in the area".
Ms Eygi's family said in a statement they were in shock and grief that the loving and "fiercely passionate human rights activist" was gone.
IMAGE SOURCE, INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
Image caption, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was taking part in a protest against Jewish settlement expansion in the town of Beita, in the occupied West Bank
The family said video showed she was killed by a bullet from an Israeli military shooter and called for the US to investigate.
The US has urged Israel to investigate the incident. Sean Savett, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, said Washington was "deeply disturbed by the tragic death of an American citizen".
"We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask for more information and request an investigation into the incident," Mr Savett said.
In a statement, Ms Eygi's family said, external that given the circumstances, an Israeli investigation "is not adequate" and called on the US to conduct an independent investigation and "ensure full accountability for the guilty parties".
Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for the UN secretary general, said: "We would want to see a full investigation of the circumstances and that people should be held accountable."
Civilians, he added, "must be protected at all times".
Footage from the scene shortly after the shooting shows medics rushing Ms Eygi into an ambulance.
Jewish-Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, who was at the protest, told BBC World Service's Newshour programme he had seen "soldiers on the rooftop aiming".
He said he had heard two separate shots, "with like a second or two distance between them".
"I heard someone calling my name, saying in English, 'Help us. We need help. We need help.' I ran towards them," he said.
He said he had then seen Ms Eygi "lying on the ground underneath an olive tree, bleeding to death from her head".
"I put my hand behind her back to try and stop the bleeding," he said. "I looked up, there was a clear line of sight between the soldiers and where we were. I took her pulse, and it was very, very weak."
He added that Friday's demonstration had been Ms Eygi's first time attending a protest with the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian group.
The dual-national was rushed to a hospital in Nablus and later pronounced dead.
Dr Fouad Nafaa, head of Rafidia Hospital where Ms Eygi was admitted, confirmed that a US citizen in her mid-20s had died from a "gunshot in the head".
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said: "During Israeli security forces activity adjacent to the area of Beita, the forces responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them.
"The IDF is looking into reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of shots fired in the area. The details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was hit are under review."
In his interview with the BBC, Jonathan Pollak was asked about the IDF's statement, where the Israeli military said security forces had responded to stone-throwing.
Mr Pollak said there had been clashes but he felt that soldiers had been "under no threat".
There had been "no stone throwing" where she had been, he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken deplored the "tragic loss", while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan branded the Israeli action "barbaric".
Ms Eygi's family said they were wrestling with the reality that she was gone.
"Like the olive tree she lay beneath where she took her last breaths, Aysenur was strong, beautiful, and nourishing. Her presence in our lives was taken needlessly, unlawfully, and violently by the Israeli military," the family said.
Her family called her a "loving daughter, sister, partner, and aunt" who was "gentle, brave, silly, supportive, and a ray of sunshine" and "lived a life of caring for those in need with action".
Ms Eygi was born in Antalya, as reported by Turkish media.
She graduated three months ago from the University of Washington in Seattle, where she studied psychology and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, her family said. She was active in campus student-led protests and felt compelled to travel to the West Bank to "stand in solidarity with Palestinian civilians".
The University of Washington's president, Ana Mari Cauce, described news of Ms Eygi's death as "awful", adding that the former student was a "positive influence" on other students.
Israeli forces withdrew from Jenin city and its refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Friday, following a major nine-day operation there.
The Palestinian health ministry says at least 36 Palestinians were killed - 21 from Jenin governorate - in that time. Most of the dead have been claimed by armed groups as members, but the ministry says children are also among those killed.
In the past 50 years, Israel has built settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where more than 700,000 Jews now live.
Settlements are held to be illegal under international law - that is the position of the UN Security Council and the UK government, among others - although Israel rejects this.
