Israeli forces shot and killed an American activist, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, during a protest against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank on Friday.
Eygi, who was of Turkish origin, was 26 years old. She was reportedly shot in the head by Israeli forces as she was protesting in Beita, near Nablus, during the town’s weekly demonstration against settlements.
A witness told CNN that Israeli forces lobbed tear gas and stun grenades at protesters and shot people as they ran away. Eygi was reportedly shot in the back of the head and was rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
According to Palestinian news agency Wafa, Eygi was volunteering with the Faz’a campaign to protect Palestinian farmers, within the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). She had just arrived in Palestine on Tuesday, according to Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera notes that Eygi is the third ISM volunteer killed by Israeli forces; Rachel Corrie, an American, was an ISM volunteer who Israeli forces killed as she protested an Israeli demolition campaign in Gaza in 2003, while Tom Hurndall, a British photography student, was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper during a protest in Gaza that same year.
Israeli forces have killed many Americans whose deaths have gone largely unacknowledged by U.S. officials, who continue to supply the weapons used to commit the killings. In 2022, Israeli forces shot Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the head, killing her as she donned her press vest, reporting on an Israeli raid of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.
Also in 2022, 78-year-old Omar Assad, a Palestinian American, died after Israeli forces violently detained him, gagging, handcuffing, and beating him, and leaving him to die after he suffered a heart attack. Perhaps most infamously, Israeli commandos raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in international waters in May 2010, killing eight people and executing an American-Turkish citizen.
U.S. officials recently decided to end their human rights probe into the Israeli unit that killed Assad, clearing them to receive more U.S. military assistance despite the State Department having found that the unit has committed gross human rights violations.
Similarly, American officials avoided naming Israeli forces as they spoke about Eygi in a statement shortly after her killing, with State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller saying that the administration is “aware” of her death and has “no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens.”
“Hey how’d they die, Matt? Was it magic? Who or what killed Aysenur? Asking on behalf of Americans who want to know,” wrote Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) on social media in response to Miller’s statement.
Eygi’s killing comes as Israel was carrying out an assault and siege of the West Bank, in which Israeli forces deployed war-like tactics across multiple cities and refugee camps in the northern part of the occupied territory. Israeli forces reportedly withdrew from Jenin on Friday, leaving mass destruction in their wake. It’s unclear if the withdrawal marks the end of the latest operation.
“The US hasn’t just failed to hold Israel accountable for killing its citizens, it’s actively supplying Israel with the weapons to do so. Israel’s killing of Eygi is yet another act of brutality, fueled by American support,” said American advocacy group the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) in a statement.
“It’s time to end the complicity. The US must act now by cutting off weapons to Israel,” IMEU went on. “@POTUS, stop supplying the bombs and bullets used to kill Palestinians and Americans alike.”
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