US activist was not near 'violent riot' when killed by Israeli fire: Report
An investigation conducted by The Washington Post has raised new doubts about Israel’s claim that US-Turkish activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was killed “during a violent riot” in Beita, Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.
According to the report, Eygi was shot more than a half-hour after the height of violence between Israeli soldiers and protestors - and 20 minutes after protesters had moved further down the road. The report also confirmed that Eygi was more than 200 yards away from Israeli soldiers when she was shot in the head.
The Washington Post spoke with 13 eyewitnesses and Beita residents and reviewed more than 50 videos and photos provided by the International Solidarity Movement, which Eygi volunteered with in the occupied West Bank.
One volunteer the Post spoke to said that she and Eygi had explicitly decided beforehand they did not want to be "near any action".
The report corroborates testimony previously provided to Middle East Eye by witnesses on the ground.
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An activist present at the protest said they retreated from soldiers who had shot tear gas into the crowd. Then two rounds of live ammunition were fired at the group, the activist said, one of which struck Eygi in the head.
”When she was shot, she was standing there doing absolutely nothing with one other woman - it was a deliberate shot because they shot from a very, very, very far distance," an activist told MEE for a previous article.
The report provides more detail on how Israeli soldiers respond to protests over Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, which violates international law.
'Live fire immediately'
According to eyewitnesses, the protestors threw stones, including slingshots, and also burned tyres.
The Israelis first used tear gas against the crowd, but then “resorted almost immediately to live ammunition”, The Washington Post reported.
According to one activist, Eygi was far ahead of other protestors retreating from the scene after Israeli soldiers escalated.
She was "behind the boys, behind the other volunteers”, one activist from Australia in her early 60s who was with Eygi throughout the day told The Washington Post.
The report is likely to pile more pressure on Israel whose military said on Tuesday that it was “highly likely” Eygi was killed by Israeli fire “indirectly and unintentionally”.
The Biden administration has come under heavy criticism from Eygi’s family to respond to the killing.
Eygi was born in Turkey but moved to the US when she was around one year old. She was raised in the Seattle area of Washington State. Her dual nationality has held up a window to the two Nato allies' stark differences over Israel.
US President Joe Biden initially issued a muted statement backing the Israeli assessment that the bullet that killed Eygi appeared to have “ricocheted off the ground", but as criticism grows, the administration has become more vocal.
On Wednesday, Biden said he was “outraged and deeply saddened” by the killing, which he said was the result of "an unnecessary escalation".
But Eygi's family has demanded the US call for an independent investigation into her killing. In a statement, they said they were “deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional”.
Eygi’s partner, Hamid Ali, said Biden had still not called Eygi’s family, contrasting with Erdogan’s decision to phone her mother and offer condolences.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a fiercer criticism of Israel, saying that Eygi's killing was "unprovoked and unjustified".
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