Blinken meets family of US-Turkish activist killed by IDF in West Bank

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met earlier today with the family of Aysenur Eygi, a Turkish-American activist shot dead by the IDF in the West Bank earlier this year, the State Department says.

Blinken expressed condolences to the family and reiterated his belief that the incident should never have happened, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says during a press briefing.

Blinken also informed the family that Israel has told the US in recent days that the IDF is finalizing its investigation into Eygi’s killing, and that the State Department will keep the family in the loop on the matter.

Asked whether he would back the Eygi family’s call for an independent investigation into her killing, Miller says that is a matter for the Justice Department to decide.

Eygi’s husband Hamad Ali told reporters after the meeting with Blinken that the secretary was “attentive,” but “repeated a lot of the same things we’ve been hearing for the past 20 years, particularly since Rachel Corrie’s killing.”

Corrie, a 23-year-old American International Solidarity Movement activist, was killed in Gaza while attempting to block an Israeli army bulldozer that was engaged in a home demolition operation. An Israeli court absolved the driver.

Israel’s initial findings on the killing of Eygi do not exonerate Israeli security forces, Miller said in September, warning that Washington would consider other measures if it is not satisfied with the results of a full Israeli probe.

Israel acknowledged that its troops shot the 26-year-old on September 6, while she took part in a protest near Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, but said it was an unintentional act during a demonstration that turned violent.

Eygi was a human rights activist and volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement, which calls for resisting Israeli rule over Palestinians using non-violent methods.