West Bank | Israel says it probably killed American activist by mistake

(Ramallah) The Israeli military said Tuesday that an American activist killed in the West Bank last week was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by its soldiers, prompting a strong rebuke from her family and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Israel said a criminal investigation has been opened into the killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old activist from Seattle who was taking part in a protest against settlements in the Palestinian territory.

Doctors who treated the activist, who also had Turkish nationality, said she had been shot in the head.

Mr Blinken condemned the “unprovoked and unjustified” fatal shooting when asked about the Israeli investigation at a news conference in London, and said the US would make clear to its ally that such actions are “not acceptable”.

“No one – no one – should be shot for participating in a protest,” he said. “Israeli security forces must make fundamental changes to the way they operate in the West Bank.”

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi’s family in the United States issued a statement saying: “We are deeply offended by the suggestion that his killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional. The disregard for human life displayed in the investigation is appalling.”

During Friday’s protest, clashes broke out between Palestinians throwing stones and Israeli soldiers firing tear gas and ammunition, according to Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli protester who witnessed the fatal shooting.

He said the violence had subsided about half an hour before she was shot, after protesters and activists retreated several hundred meters from the protest site. Pollak said he saw two Israeli soldiers climb onto the roof of a nearby house, point a gun at the group and fire, one bullet hitting the activist.

Israel said its investigation into the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi “concluded that it is very likely that she was hit indirectly and unintentionally by gunfire.” [de l’armée israélienne] which were not directed at her, but were aimed at the main instigator of the riot.” The Hebrew state expressed its “deepest regrets” for her death.

The International Solidarity Movement, the activist group for which Aysenur Ezgi Eygi worked as a volunteer, said it completely rejected the Israeli statement and that the “shot was aimed directly at M^me Egyi ​​».

His death came amid rising violence in the West Bank since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October, with an increase in Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis, attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and a harsher military crackdown on Palestinian protests.

Israel says it thoroughly investigates allegations that its forces have killed civilians and holds them accountable. It says soldiers often have to make split-second decisions when operating in areas where militants hide among civilians. But human rights groups say soldiers are very rarely prosecuted and even in the most shocking cases – and those caught on video – they often receive relatively light sentences.

The Palestinian Authority held a funeral procession for Aysenur Ezgi Eygi in the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday. Turkish authorities said they were working to repatriate her body to Turkey for burial in the coastal city of Didim on the Aegean coast, in accordance with her family’s wishes.

The slain activist’s uncle said in an interview with Turkish TV channel HaberTurk that she had kept her visit to the West Bank a secret from some family members. She said she was going to Jordan to help Palestinians there, he said.

“She hid the fact that she was going to Palestine. She blocked us from accessing her social media posts so that we wouldn’t see them,” Yilmaz Eygi said.

Americans killed

The deaths of American citizens in the West Bank have attracted international attention, such as the shooting death of a prominent Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, in 2022 in the Jenin refugee camp.

Several independent investigations and reports by the Associated Press (AP) determined that Shireen Abu Akleh was likely killed by Israeli gunfire. Months later, the army said there was a “high probability” that one of its soldiers had killed her by mistake, but that no one would be punished.

In January 2022, Omar Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian-American, died of a heart attack after Israeli troops at a checkpoint dragged him from his car and made him lie face down on the ground, bound, temporarily gagged and blindfolded. The military ruled out criminal charges and said it was reprimanding one commander and removing two others from leadership positions for two years.

The United States had planned to sanction a military unit linked to abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank, but eventually abandoned the plan.

The deaths of Palestinians who do not have dual nationality rarely receive the same scrutiny.

Human rights groups say Israeli military investigations into Palestinian deaths reflect a pattern of impunity. B’Tselem, a prominent Israeli watchdog, grew so frustrated that in 2016 it ended its decades-long practice of assisting the investigations and called them whitewashes.

Last year, an Israeli court acquitted a member of the paramilitary Border Police of manslaughter charges in the fatal shooting of Eyad Hallaq, a 32-year-old autistic Palestinian, in Jerusalem’s Old City in 2020. The case had been compared to the police killing of George Floyd in the United States.

In 2017, Israeli soldier Elor Azaria was convicted of manslaughter and served nine months in prison after killing a wounded and incapacitated Palestinian attacker in the West Bank city of Hebron. The combat medic was filmed killing Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, who lay motionless on the ground.

The case has deeply divided Israelis, with the military saying Azaria had clearly violated its code of ethics, while many Israelis – particularly on the nationalist right – have defended his actions and accused the army’s top brass of questioning a soldier operating in dangerous conditions.