Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi

Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi
Born	(1998-07-27)27 July 1998 Antalya, Turkey
Died	6 September 2024(2024-09-06) (aged 26) Nablus, West Bank, Palestine
Cause of death	Gunshot wound
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Washington
Occupations	Human rights activist peer mentor
Movement	International Solidarity Movement Faz3a

Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi (27 July 1998 – 6 September 2024) was a Turkish-born American human rights activist and peer mentor. Eygi was a volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and an activist against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. On 6 September 2024, she was shot in the head by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sniper during a protest against illegal Israeli settlements in Beita, Nablus, in the West Bank. Eygi was rushed to the Rafidia Surgical Hospital but died shortly after.

Eygi is the third ISM member to be killed by the IDF, with Rachel Corrie killed in 2003 by a bulldozer and Tom Hurndall killed in 2004 in the same manner as Eygi.

Early life

Eygi was born in Antalya, Turkey, on 27 July 1998. Her family moved to the United States when she was less than a year old. Eygi was raised in Seattle and attended the West Seattle High School. Later, she graduated from the University of Washington with a major in psychology and a minor in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures.

Activities in the West Bank

Eygi participated in the Faz3a (Faz'a) movement, an organisation which fights for the rights of Palestinian farmers who are persecuted by the Israeli military and attacked by settlers. She was also a member of the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement, much like Tom Hurndall and Rachel Corrie.

Eygi entered the West Bank at the beginning of September and took part in the weekly protests in Beita, Nablus. During a communal prayer primarily composed of men and children, IDF soldiers arrived and tried to disperse the group.

Death

Main article: Killing of Ayşenur Eygi

Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli activist who participated in the protest, claimed the shooting happened soon after dozens of Palestinians and foreign activists gathered for a communal prayer on a hillside near Beita, in the northern West Bank, which overlooked the illegal Israeli settlement of Evyatar. According to Pollak, while a clash had occurred in a previous incident on the same day, soldiers were under no threat, and the killing of Eygi took place in a separate event. He saw two soldiers, positioned atop a nearby house, aiming a gun towards the demonstrators and opening fire. Pollak said that Eygi was 10 meters (33 ft) away from him when she was shot in the head, and that she was bleeding to death next to an olive tree. The ISM contradicted the IDF's claims its soldiers had been subjected to stone throwing by Eygi's group, saying “Ayşenur was more than 200 metres (660 ft) away from where the Israeli soldiers were and there were no confrontations there at all in the minutes before she was shot.”

Eygi was rushed to the Rafidia Surgical Hospital in Nablus where she was treated for severe head injuries. A&E medic Ward Basalat said that the doctors attempted to perform a resuscitation operation on her, but she had died shortly after arriving to the hospital on 6 September 2024. Her remains were repatriated to Turkey and were buried at Didim on 14 September in a ceremony attended by Turkish vice president Cevdet Yilmaz, foreign minister Hakan Fidan, Grand National Assembly speaker Numan Kurtulmuş and Republican People's Party leader Özgür Özel.

Reactions

Political reactions

A spokesperson of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Öncü Keçeli, said that Turkey would exert "all effort to ensure that those who killed our citizen is brought to justice." Another official statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry states that “We condemn this murder committed by the Netanyahu Government. Israel is trying to intimidate all those who come to the aid of the Palestinian people and who fight peacefully against the genocide. This policy of violence will not work.”

United States Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said “We are urgently gathering more information about the circumstances of her death, and will have more to say as we learn more. We have no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens.” Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to "do something to save lives".

The Israeli Defense Forces wrote on social media platform X that “The IDF is looking into reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of shots fired in the area. The details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was hit are under review.”

United States National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said in a statement to Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency: “We are deeply disturbed by the tragic death of an American citizen, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, today in the West Bank and our hearts go out to her family and loved ones”. Savett further states that “We have reached out to the Government of Israel to ask for more information and request an investigation into the incident”.

Nablus Governor Ghassan Daghlas in a statement to Reuters said “All legal measures will be submitted to the International Criminal Court” ... “The bullets do not distinguish between a Palestinian, a child, a woman, or any nationality” ... “Now her life is lost, she is an American citizen holding American nationality, which means Israel is crossing all lines.”

See also

• ISM casualties in Palestine and Israel
• Rachel Corrie - American activist killed by an IDF bulldozer in 2003.
• Iain Hook – British UNRWA project manager shot and killed by IDF during a battle in Jenin, 22 November 2002.
• James Miller – British film-maker shot and killed by the IDF in Gaza, 2 May 2003.
• Shireen Abu Akleh - Palestinian-American journalist killed by Israeli forces in 2022.
• Vittorio Arrigoni – Italian ISM volunteer abducted and murdered in Gaza by a Salafist militant group.
• Kayla Mueller – American activist and aid worker abducted by ISIS and later killed.
• Furkan Doğan - American-Turkish activist killed by the IDF in the Gaza Flotilla Raid in 2010.
• List of peace activists