US activist killed after Israeli military fires at protest in West Bank
A young Turkish-American woman, Aysenur Eygi, was shot and killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, according to U.S. and Palestinian officials, while she was taking part in a protest near Nablus.
Eygi was shot in the head by Israeli forces responding to the gathering, according to two eyewitnesses who spoke to CNN. The 26-year-old had been participating in a weekly protest against an Israeli settlement near the Palestinian village of Beita, they also said.
The Israeli military has admitted to firing at the demonstrators. In a statement, the IDF added that its forces 바카라 게임 웹사이트responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them.바카라 게임 웹사이트
The IDF is 바카라 게임 웹사이트looking into reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of shots fired in the area,바카라 게임 웹사이트 it also said.
Eygi had been volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), the same pro-Palestinian activist group as Rachel Corrie, a U.S. citizen who was killed in 2003 while trying to block an Israeli bulldozer from razing Palestinian homes in Gaza.
She was a University of Washington graduate, according to ISM, and graduated from the Seattle-based institution this spring.
Protests at Beita are common. The Palestinian town is next to a ramshackle Israeli settler outpost known as Evyatar. The settlement was unauthorized by the Israeli state until it was legalized earlier this year. All Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah said that the activist arrived at Rafidia Governmental Hospital 바카라 게임 웹사이트with serious occupation gunshot wounds to the head.바카라 게임 웹사이트
바카라 게임 웹사이트Medical teams have announced her death after resuscitation attempts and treatment,바카라 게임 웹사이트 it added.
Eygi held both U.S. and Turkish citizenship. U.S. officials are looking into the deadly incident, and the Turkish government has said it holds Israel responsible for her death.
바카라 게임 웹사이트As people were running away, live fire was shot바카라 게임 웹사이트
Eyewitnesses described the moments leading up to her killing on Friday.
Eygi was crouched near a dumpster at the bottom of a hill when gunfire began, Vivi Chen, who volunteers for Faza바카라 게임 웹사이트a 바카라 게임 웹사이트 another pro-Palestinian group which works in partnership with ISM 바카라 게임 웹사이트 said. Chen confirmed Eygi was there with ISM.
바카라 게임 웹사이트We were all at the bottom of the hill and the Israeli army was at the top,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Chen said. 바카라 게임 웹사이트There were two volunteers sitting behind a dumpster and they fired one shot at the dumpster. It hit a metal plane. And then there was another shot and they shot 바카라 게임 웹사이트 they shot her in the head.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Video shared with CNN by Chen shows paramedics wrestling her body onto a stretcher. Blood pours from a hole in her forehead. Eygi was brought to Rafidia hospital in Nablus, where she was pronounced dead.
Chen said she believed Eygi was targeted. 바카라 게임 웹사이트They have weapons from America. It is not an accident that they hit her in the head. That was on purpose. It바카라 게임 웹사이트s not that they shot a hundred shots at the same time, and she was hit with one. We were all standing still, not moving. Just standing there, and they shot her through the head.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Dr. Hisham Dweikat, a resident of Beita who took part in the demonstration, told CNN that as the protest was wrapping up, the Israeli military started firing tear gas towards the crowd.
바카라 게임 웹사이트As people were running away, live fire was shot and a soldier fired directly at the protesters, hitting the American activist in the head from behind and falling to the ground,바카라 게임 웹사이트 he also said.
A fellow ISM volunteer, who declined to be named due to security concerns, said the protest was peaceful, and they were 바카라 게임 웹사이트demonstrating alongside Palestinians against the colonization of their land and the illegal settlement of Evyatar.바카라 게임 웹사이트
The volunteer said the 바카라 게임 웹사이트situation escalated when the Israeli army began to fire tear gas and live ammunition.바카라 게임 웹사이트
ISM describes itself as a Palestinian-led movement founded in 2001, saying on its website that it uses non-violent, direct-action methods to resist the 바카라 게임 웹사이트oppression and dispossession of Palestinians.바카라 게임 웹사이트 The group supports Palestinians by standing alongside them during demonstrations and in areas facing attacks in the occupied West Bank.
Global response
The governor of Nablus, Ghassan Daghlas, decried Eygi바카라 게임 웹사이트s death during a visit to Rafidia hospital.
바카라 게임 웹사이트We say to the international community, this woman held American citizenship,바카라 게임 웹사이트 he told journalists. 바카라 게임 웹사이트But the bullets did not differentiate between a Palestinian, a child, an old man, or a woman, and between one nationality and another.바카라 게임 웹사이트
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. was working to 바카라 게임 웹사이트gather the facts바카라 게임 웹사이트 of Eygi바카라 게임 웹사이트s killing and offered condolences to her family 바카라 게임 웹사이트 but did not suggest any immediate policy changes related to her death.
Even when there have been determinations that Israeli forces were responsible for the killings of Americans in the West Bank 바카라 게임 웹사이트 like Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh 바카라 게임 웹사이트 the U.S. has not altered its policies and has continued to provide significant military support to those forces.
National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said earlier the U.S. was 바카라 게임 웹사이트deeply disturbed바카라 게임 웹사이트 by Eygi바카라 게임 웹사이트s killing. 바카라 게임 웹사이트We have reached out to the Government of Israel to ask for more information and request an investigation into the incident,바카라 게임 웹사이트 he added.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew confirmed that Eygi, who was born in Turkey, was the victim and said the embassy was 바카라 게임 웹사이트urgently gathering more information about the circumstances of her death.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Turkey바카라 게임 웹사이트s Foreign Ministry condemned Eygi바카라 게임 웹사이트s death, saying it held the Israeli government responsible and confirming she was also a Turkish citizen. 바카라 게임 웹사이트We will follow up on bringing those who killed our citizens to justice,바카라 게임 웹사이트 spokesperson Oncu Keceli said.
Raids and airstrikes in the West Bank
The activist바카라 게임 웹사이트s death comes nine days after Israel바카라 게임 웹사이트s military launched one of its most expansive operations in the West Bank in years, carrying out raids, bulldozing highways, and launching airstrikes in multiple parts of the occupied territory.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the operation aimed to 바카라 게임 웹사이트thwart Islamic-Iranian terrorist infrastructure,바카라 게임 웹사이트 claiming that Iran was working to establish an 바카라 게임 웹사이트eastern front바카라 게임 웹사이트 against Israel to work alongside Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Residents of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, described scenes of devastation by the Israeli military. Several Palestinians warned of destruction to critical infrastructure 바카라 게임 웹사이트 including health care services, water and electricity supplies.
바카라 게임 웹사이트It felt like Gaza,바카라 게임 웹사이트 36-year-old Lina Al Amouri said by telephone from Jenin. She and her husband fled several days into the IDF incursion, but went back when they heard rumors that the operation had quieted.
The military withdrew from Jenin and Tulkarem on Friday, according to residents. But an Israeli security source said that 바카라 게임 웹사이트the overall operation in Jenin is not over, it is only a pause.바카라 게임 웹사이트
Clashes in the West Bank have become more frequent since Israel began its war in Gaza in response to Hamas바카라 게임 웹사이트 attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7.
Israeli troops and settlers have killed nearly 700 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since October, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, whose figures do not distinguish between militants and civilians.
