Israeli forces have killed 26-year-old American-Turkish protest activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi during protests against illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, Wafa Palestinian news agency and local hospitals reported. It happened on Friday at Mount Sbeih in Beita, south of Nablus, where Ezgi Eygi was present during the protest.
Eygi was shot in the head and admitted to Rafidia Hospital in critical condition, as stated by the head of the hospital, Fouad Nafaa. After some attempts at revival through cardiopulmonary resuscitation, she passed on shortly. The activist was in the International Solidity Movement, which is an organisation that embraces the policy of ‘sheltering in armed resistance against the Israeli occupation on behalf of Palestinians.
Eygi, Pollak said he came across him lying under an olive tree with severe chest injuries and covered in blood. He tried to do something about the bleeding before calling for an ambulance to drive her to the hospital. In this protest, the Israeli military stated that its forces were acting in self-defence. They were attacked during the rally; the ‘main instigator’ had been throwing rocks at the soldiers. The military also said that they are currently looking into reports of a foreigners which was killed.
This has resulted in so much concern all over the world. Palestine’s Nablus Governor Ghassan Daghlas said legal cases to the ICC will be submitted, urging Biden to cut US aid to Israel, which targeted civilians, including foreigners.
The U. S. government has reacted. The U. S. Ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, offered condolences. He claimed that the authorities are trying to obtain additional details on the circumstances of Eygi’s death on an urgent basis. The official of the U.S. Department of State repeated the same, noting that the security of the population of the United States is an absolute, inalienable value.
Turkey denounced the killing and said that Israel tried to send a message to activists in support of Palestinians. The actual event was described as a clean extension of Israel’s violent actions by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and urged the Israeli authorities to be brought to the universal jurisdiction of the international courts. Human rights organisations and other international organisations have also responded, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stated they are shocked, and the UN has demanded a proper probe.
It is a sad note that Eygi died while the situation in the West Bank is getting worse because of tension arising from Israel’s war on Gaza. The protest she was attending was among those that have been induced by increased Israeli settler aggression that has been rampaging in the recent past. The global society primarily considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank as unlawful, the U. S. President Biden’s administration also stated that they are illegal. However, the U. S has in the past bailed Israel whenever it was at the receiving end of diplomatic consequences.
While the search for the killer goes on, the world continues to turn its gaze on the West Bank as a settler as the Palestinians suffer continued targeted killings.
