Report backs claim US woman was killed half hour after West Bank protest waned
Citing 13 eyewitnesses and footage, Washington Post says Aysenur Eygi was some 180 meters away from troops when shot and could not have posed a threat
A report Wednesday challenged the IDF’s version of events surrounding the fatal shooting of an American activist by Israeli troops in the West Bank last week, saying the protesters had retreated down the road and did not pose a threat to soldiers at the time of the killing.
Dual Turkish-American national Aysenur Eygi, 26, was shot dead Friday while taking part in a protest against Israeli settlement activity at Beita Junction, near Nablus in the northern West Bank.
On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said the activist had in all probability been mistakenly hit by troops aiming at another individual. “The incident occurred during a violent gathering of dozens of Palestinian suspects, who burned tires and threw stones at forces at Beita Junction,” the military said, adding that it “expresses its deepest regret over the death.”
However, The Washington Post reported the Eygi was shot over half an hour after the peak of the protests and some 20 minutes after the demonstrators had moved down the road, meaning she was approximately 180 meters (200 yards) away from the troops when she was killed and could not have posed a threat.
The report cited 13 eyewitnesses and Beita residents, and footage exclusively provided by the International Solidarity Movement, of which Eygi was a member, and Faz3a, another Palestinian advocacy group.
The claim backed the account of Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli peace activist who had participated in the protest; Pollak told the Associated Press that Eygi was shot about a half hour after the violence had subsided and that she had posed no threat.
Eygi was an activist with ISM, which describes itself as “a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation” with nonviolent tactics.
Witnesses told the Washington Post that a Palestinian teen who was standing about 18 meters (20 yards) from Eygi was wounded by IDF fire, but the military would not say if he was the target.
Residents and activists said that while the soldiers initially began by using tear gas to disperse the crowd, they quickly switched to live ammunition.
Eygi was “shocked by the swift escalation,” the newspaper said and moved further down the road.
“We had both decided we did not want to be near any action at all,” said Helen, an Australian volunteer who accompanied Eygi throughout the day.
Activists and residents told the newspaper that the moment in which Eygi was killed was not caught on film because there was not much happening at the time.
Pollak told the Washington Post that shortly before the shooting, he saw a soldier on a rooftop “training his gun in our direction.” He said he was the closest among the activists to the soldiers — 200 yards away — while Eygi was 30 yards further down.
Ali Maali, who lives in a rooftop apartment above which the soldiers had taken position, said gunshots “shook the house.”
According to footage from 1:48 p.m., after the shooting, a woman off camera screamed “gunshot” and pleaded for an ambulance, the Post reported.
Helen, who was next to Eygi, “heard a large crack sound of live ammunition,” she told the Post. The activist said that she saw Eygi fall over, with blood pouring from her head.
“Some people say there were two shots, some people say there were three,” said Alex Chabbott, an American volunteer with Faz3a, describing the scene as “chaos.”
The newspaper said the IDF declined to comment when asked why troops had fired at the protesters when they were so far away.
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris expressed outrage Wednesday over the fatal shooting and called for full accountability and demanded Jerusalem take steps to prevent future incidents.
Biden in a statement backed the initial Israeli finding, describing the death as “the result of a tragic error resulting from an unnecessary escalation,” and appeared to push back against demands from Eygi’s family that the White House order an independent probe into the killing rather than rely on Israel.
Turkey probing killing
Meanwhile, Turkey said Thursday that it is investigating Eygi’s killing, and would press the United Nations to open an independent inquiry into her death.
“We will work to ensure that the (UN) Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial and Arbitrary Executions takes immediate action and that an independent commission of inquiry is established and prepares a report,” Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said.
Tunc said Turkey would forward that report to the UN Human Rights Council and to the ongoing case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
“We will continue to defend the rights of our sister Aysenur and our Palestinian brothers,” he added.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said the formal procedures for the transfer of the body had been concluded through its embassy in Tel Aviv and consulate in Jerusalem.
“The body of the deceased will arrive in Turkey tomorrow,” it said. “We once again condemn this murder committed by the genocidal Netanyahu government.”
Eygi’s family had been hoping to hold her funeral on Friday but her father said it would now take place a day later.
“The district governor told us that she will arrive in Istanbul tomorrow morning, then to Izmir. The funeral will take place here in Didim on Saturday,” Mehmet Suat Eygi, 60, told journalists following his arrival from the US, where he lives.
“It’s sad but it’s also a source of pride for Didim,” Eygi’s uncle Ali Tikkim, 67, who lives in the town, said on Wednesday. “It’s important that a young girl, martyred and sensitive to the world, is buried here.”
Tikkim said Eygi’s mother, who lives in Seattle on the US West Coast, had arrived in Didim on Wednesday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to ensure “that Aysenur Ezgi’s death does not go unpunished.”
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
