An American-Turkish citizen has died after allegedly being shot in the head by Israeli troops, according to recent reports. Twenty-six-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi passed away on Friday, per the reports.
The U.S. State Department and Turkey’s Foreign Ministry confirmed her death.
The incident occurred during a protest in the town of Beita, near the city of Nablus. It was part of an overall demonstration against the establishment of Israeli settlements in the region, an issue that has been the subject of debate for decades.
Eygi’s death provoked an international outcry, especially from people in Turkey, whose foreign ministry also accused Israel of attempting to “intimidate all those who come to the aid of the Palestinian people and who fight peacefully against the genocide.”
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, in a statement to Fox News, said, “We are urgently gathering more information about the circumstances of her death and will have more to say as we learn more.”
Aysenur Eygi, who holds American citizenship, was killed in the West Bank in an area where violence erupted against Israeli soldiers.
The IDF is rightly investigating the incident.
If it was a soldier, I expect the IDF to bring the shooter to justice as it is not aligned with… pic.twitter.com/oFnfXomfis
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) September 6, 2024
This development comes during a period of escalating violence in the West Bank between Israeli settlers and Palestinians. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that its soldiers were involved in a confrontation with protesters in the city.
“Today (Friday), 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 said in a statement.
The IDF also noted that it was “looking into reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of shots fired in the area.”
After the shooting, Eygi was transported to a hospital in Nablus, where doctors attempted to save her life. “We tried to perform a resuscitation operation on her, but unfortunately she died,” Dr. Fouad Nafaa, the head of the hospital, stated.
Tensions have been high since the start of the war between Israel and terrorist group Hamas in Gaza. The conflict has sparked violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
The incident comes about one week after Hamas executed American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, which ignited international outrage.
