West Bank: Eyewitnesses report that American activist Aysenur Eygi was shot dead by Israeli forces

CNN
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According to US and Palestinian authorities, young Turkish-American woman Aysenur Eygi was shot dead in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday while taking part in a protest rally near Nablus.

Eygi was shot in the head by Israeli forces responding to the gathering, two witnesses told CNN. The 26-year-old had been taking part in a weekly protest against an Israeli settlement near the Palestinian village of Beita, they said.

The Israeli military has admitted firing at the protesters. In a statement, the Israeli army added that its forces “responded with fire to a main instigator of the violence who threw stones at the forces and posed a threat to them.”

The Israeli military is “investigating reports that a foreign national was killed by gunfire from the area,” it said.

Eygi had volunteered for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), the same pro-Palestinian activist group as Rachel Corrie, a US citizen who was killed in 2003 while trying to stop an Israeli bulldozer from razing Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.

“This morning came the terrible news that Israeli forces reportedly killed recent University of Washington graduate Aysenur Eygi in the West Bank,” said University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce in a statement. “Aysenur was a mentor in psychology who helped welcome new students to the department and made a positive impact on their lives.”

She was a graduate of the University of Washington and completed her studies at the Seattle-based school this spring.

Protests are commonplace in Beita. The Palestinian town is located next to a dilapidated Israeli settler outpost called Evyatar. The settlement was not approved by the Israeli state until it was legalized earlier this year. All Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah said the activist had arrived at the state-run Rafidia Hospital “with serious gunshot wounds to the head.”

“Medical teams confirmed her death after resuscitation attempts and treatment,” it said.

Eygi was a dual U.S. and Turkish citizen. U.S. authorities are investigating the fatal incident, and the Turkish government has said it blames Israel for her death.

Eyewitnesses described the moments before her killing on Friday.

Eygi was crouched next to a dumpster at the bottom of a hill when the shots rang out, said Vivi Chen, who volunteers with Faza'a – another pro-Palestinian group that works with ISM. Chen confirmed that Eygi was there with ISM.

“We were all down on the hill and the Israeli army was up there,” Chen said. “Two volunteers were sitting behind a dumpster and they fired a shot at the dumpster. It hit a metal plane. And then there was another shot and they shot – they shot her in the head.”

A video shared by Chen to CNN shows paramedics lifting her body onto a stretcher, blood streaming from a hole in her forehead. Eygi was taken to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, where she was pronounced dead.

Chen said she believes Eygi was the target. “They have guns from America. It was not accidental that they hit her in the head. It was intentional. It's not like they fired a hundred shots at once and she was only hit by one. We all stood still, didn't move. We just stood there and they shot her through the head.”

Dr. Hisham Dweikat, a Beita resident who took part in the demonstration, told CNN that towards the end of the protest, the Israeli military began firing tear gas towards the crowd.

“As people ran away, live ammunition was fired and a soldier fired directly at the protesters, hitting the American activist from behind in the head and causing him to fall to the ground,” he said.

Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, who took part in the protests on Friday, said Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and live ammunition at the peaceful demonstration, forcing protesters to retreat. After a 20-minute rest, Pollak noticed an Israeli soldier aiming his rifle and heard gunshots.

One bullet hit a young man, the other Eygi, who was standing next to an olive tree, Pollak said. “I ran towards them. They were in the olive grove right behind them, and I found her lying on the ground under an olive tree, bleeding to death. She had a bullet hole in her head,” Pollak said.

Another ISM volunteer, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said the protest was peaceful and that they “demonstrated together with the Palestinians against the colonization of their land and the illegal settlement of Evjatar.”

The volunteer said the “situation escalated when the Israeli army began using tear gas and live ammunition.”

ISM describes itself as a Palestinian-led movement founded in 2001. Its website says it uses non-violent methods of direct action to fight against the “oppression and dispossession of Palestinians.” The group supports Palestinians by assisting them in demonstrations and in areas of the occupied West Bank that are under attack.

Nablus Governor Ghassan Daghlas condemned Eygi's death during a visit to Rafidia Hospital.

“We tell the international community that this woman was an American citizen,” he told reporters. “But the bullets made no distinction between a Palestinian, a child, an old man or a woman, and between one nationality and another.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was working to gather “the facts” about Eygi's killing and expressed condolences to her family – but did not propose any immediate policy changes related to her death.

Even when it was established that Israeli forces were responsible for the killing of Americans in the West Bank – including the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh – the United States did not change its policy and continued to provide significant military support to these forces.

National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett previously said the US was “deeply concerned” about Eygi's killing. “We have reached out to the Israeli government to request more information and call for an investigation into the incident,” he added.

US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew confirmed that Turkish-born Eygi was the victim and said the embassy was “urgently gathering further information about the circumstances of her death.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned Eygi's death, blamed the Israeli government for the murder and confirmed that she was also a Turkish citizen. “We will work to ensure that the murderers of our citizens are brought to justice,” said spokesman Oncu Keceli.

Raids and airstrikes in the West Bank

The activist's death came nine days after the Israeli military launched one of its most extensive operations in the West Bank in years, conducting raids, flattening highways and carrying out air strikes in several parts of the occupied territory.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the aim of the operation was to “thwart the Islamic-Iranian terror infrastructure.” He claimed Iran was working to establish an “eastern front” against Israel, working with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Residents of Jenin in the occupied West Bank described images of devastation caused by the Israeli military. Several Palestinians warned of the destruction of important infrastructure – including health services, water and electricity supplies.

“It felt like Gaza,” said 36-year-old Lina Al Amouri by phone from Jenin. She and her husband fled several days after Israeli forces invaded, but returned when they heard rumors that the operation had ended.

According to residents, the military withdrew from Jenin and Tulkarem on Friday. However, an Israeli security source said that “the entire operation in Jenin is not over, it is just a pause.”

Since Israel began its war in the Gaza Strip on October 7 in response to Hamas's attack on southern Israel, clashes have become more frequent in the West Bank.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah, Israeli troops and settlers have killed nearly 700 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since October. The figures do not distinguish between militants and civilians.

This is a developing story and will be updated.