A 26-year-old American activist was shot dead Friday while attending a pro-Palestinian protest in the West Bank, the BBC reported.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, the American national of Turkish origin, was reportedly attending a demonstration against the expansion of Jewish communities, the outlet noted.
She arrived at a local hospital in critical condition with a serious head injury, Fouad Nafaa, the head of the hospital, told Reuters.
“We tried to perform a resuscitation operation on her, but unfortunately she died,” he said.
WAFA, a Palestinian state media outlet, accused soldiers with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of shooting the woman, the outlet reported. The IDF said it is investigating the exact circumstances of her death. (RELATED: IDF Releases Footage Of Terrorist Who Opened Fire On Minibus Getting Airstriked)
Demonstrators sit before Israeli border guards during a protest vigil in Beit Jala in the occupied West Bank on September 3, 2024 in solidarity with the Palestinian Kisiya family whose land was taken over by armed Israeli settlers planning to build a new outpost. The Kisiyas have for years been threatened by Israeli settlement activity, and in 2019 the civil administration demolished the family’s home and restaurant. The latest run-in occurred on July 31, when settlers from a nearby outpost accompanied by soldiers “raided the land, assaulting members of the Kisiya family and activists trying to force them to leave the area”, according to Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now. (Photo by HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images)
The IDF said that the protest had turned violent as people started throwing rocks at Israeli troops. Israeli soldiers “responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them,” the IDF said.
Today, 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…
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 6, 2024
A Palestinian protestor throws a rocks at Israeli security forces during clashes in the village of Beita, south of Nablus, on June 4, 2021, in the occupied West Bank. (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images)
The IDF’s standard operating procedure in such scenarios is to neutralize the instigators by shooting them in the lower part of their body, The Jerusalem Post reported.
American-Turkish activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, succumbed to her wounds on Friday after being shot in the head by Israeli forces during a weekly protest against settlement expansions in the West Bank.
Reporting by @EyalGreen and @SamHalpern1 https://t.co/JJmH5tp87G— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) September 6, 2024
Protests against Jewish settlements in Beita, the town in the West Bank where Eygi was shot, are held on a regular basis, Reuters reported, citing WAFA.
Over 700,000 Jews live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the BBC reported. While the Palestinian government and many in the international community regard the presence of Israeli nationals in the area as illegal under international law, the Israeli government disputes this position, the outlet reported.
The Israelis gained control of the area from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1967 in the Six Day War, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
