It’s “highly likely” that Israeli military forces killed an American citizen who was protesting in the West Bank last week.
Officials with the Israeli military confirmed that 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who recently graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle, was killed while she was demonstrating against the expanding settlements in the West Bank.
That news was first reported by the International Solidarity Movement.
Following the information that the American was killed by Israeli military forces, the U.S. said the shooting was “unprovoked and unjustified,” calling for “fundamental changes” to how Israel is conducting its war against the terrorist organization Hamas.
The Biden administration has urged Israeli officials to investigate the circumstances around her death, ensuring that the findings were “thorough and transparent.”
The shooting of Eygi occurred while Israeli forces were carrying out a military operation in other sections of the West Bank, where the military was targeting Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants.
In a short statement released on Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said an initial inquiry discovered that it was “highly likely” Eygi was “hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire, which was not aimed at her, but aimed at the key instigator of the protest that she was attending.
The IDF further said the demonstration was a “violent riot in which dozens of Palestinian suspects burned tires and hurled rocks toward security forces at the Beita Junction.”
Eygi’s family countered that by saying that she was demonstrating peacefully when she was shot and killed. Video of the incident showed that the bullet that killed her apparently came from a shooter with the Israeli military.
Her family has called for an independent investigation ordered by the U.S. government, saying an investigation conducted just by Israel wouldn’t be enough to satisfy them.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said her killing was “deeply concerning.” He added that the IDF “found they were at fault” following their initial investigation and had “called for now a criminal investigation.”
He continued:
“We know that’s an unusual step for the IDF. That’s not something that they do, typically. We’ll be watching this investigation very closely.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said the inquiry the IDF conducted “seems to show what eyewitnesses have said and made clear that her killing was both unprovoked and unjustified.”
While traveling to London, Blinken said:
“In our judgment, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank.”
He added that the U.S. government would be “making that clear to the senior-most members of the Israeli government.”
The IDF further said:
“Following the incident, an investigation was launched by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division. The findings will be submitted for review by the Military Advocate General’s Corp upon its conclusion.”
It further “expresses its deepest regret” for her killing, and requested that an autopsy be conducted.
