Turkish-US woman’s family seeks probe into ‘killing by Israeli military’

Published September 8, 2024
Turkish-American woman Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a graduate of the University of Washington, poses wearing her mortarboard and keffiyeh in a family photograph taken in Spring 2024 in Seattle, Washington. — Reuters
Turkish-American woman Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a graduate of the University of Washington, poses wearing her mortarboard and keffiyeh in a family photograph taken in Spring 2024 in Seattle, Washington. — Reuters

JERUSALEM: The family of a Turkish-American woman shot dead while demonstrating against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank demanded an independent investigation into her death on Saturday, accusing the Israeli military of killing her “violently”.

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was “shot in the head” while participating in a demonstration in Beita in the West Bank on Friday, the United Nations rights office said. “Her presence in our lives was taken needlessly, unlawfully, and violently by the Israeli military,” Eygi’s family said in a statement.

“A US citizen, Aysenur was peacefully standing for justice when she was killed by a bullet that video shows came from an Israeli military shooter.

“We call on President (Joe) Biden, Vice President (Kamala) Harris, and Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a US citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties.”

Eygi was a member of the International Solida­rity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian organisation, and was in Beita on Friday for a weekly demonstration against Israeli settlements, according to ISM.

The group on Saturday dismissed claims that ISM activists threw rocks at Israeli forces as “false” and said the demonstration was peaceful. “Aysenur was more than 200 metres away from where the Israeli soldiers were, and there were no confrontations there at all in the minutes before she was shot,” ISM said in a statement.

Three killed in Lebanon

Lebanon’s health ministry said three emergency personnel were killed and two wounded in an Israeli attack on Saturday on a civil defence team that had been fighting fires in the country’s south.

“Israeli enemy targeting of a Lebanese civil defence team that was putting out fires sparked by the recent Israeli strikes in the village of Froun led to the martyrdom of three emergency responders,” the health ministry said in a statement.

Two others were wounded, one of them critically, the statement said, adding that the toll was provisional.

The ministry said two emergency personnel from the Hezbollah-affi­liated Islamic Health Committee were wounded when “the Israeli enemy deliberately targeted” near a fire they were heading to extinguish in south Lebanon’s Qabrikha, causing their vehicle to swerve.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2024

Opinion

Editorial

Trump 2.0
Updated 07 Nov, 2024

Trump 2.0

It remains to be seen how his promises to bring ‘peace’ to Middle East reconcile with his blatantly pro-Israel bias.
Fait accompli
07 Nov, 2024

Fait accompli

A SLEW of secretively conceived and hastily enacted legislation has achieved its intended result: the powers of the...
IPP contracts
07 Nov, 2024

IPP contracts

THE government expects the ongoing ‘negotiations’ with power producers aimed at revising the terms of sovereign...
Rushed legislation
Updated 06 Nov, 2024

Rushed legislation

For all its stress on "supremacy of parliament", the ruling coalition has wasted no opportunity to reiterate where its allegiances truly lie.
Jail reform policy
06 Nov, 2024

Jail reform policy

THE state is making a fresh attempt to improve conditions in Pakistan’s penitentiaries by developing a national...
BISP overhaul
06 Nov, 2024

BISP overhaul

IT has emerged that the spouses of over 28,500 Sindh government employees have been illicitly benefiting from BISP....