Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was killed by direct Israeli hit, autopsy report indicates
An autopsy report prepared by the Palestinian Authority suggests that Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish-American activist, was directly shot in the head by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank, according to three forensic experts who reviewed the dossier.
The report, dated 6 September and drafted by a Palestinian medical committee led by Dr Rayyan al-Ali, contradicts the version of evens given by Israel and US President Joe Biden, who said the bullet that killed Eygi appeared to have “ricocheted off the ground”.
Three separate forensic experts who viewed the autopsy report told Middle East Eye that the damage on Ezgi’s skull and the destruction within suggest that it was a direct hit.
“The bullet left a large damage inside the skull and it appears like it spent all its kinetic energy in the impacted area in parallel with gun fire that directly hits to head,” Polat Erdi, a forensic medicine expert, told MEE.
Eygi, a pro-Palestinian activist with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was shot in the head when Israeli soldiers opened fire on protestors in the West Bank village of Beita near Nablus last week.
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The report says the bullet left a semi-circular abrasion that had a dimension of 1.5cm and 1.4cm near the left earlobe backwards.
“It is located 11 cm from the middle of the top of the head, and represents an entry wound from a bullet,” the report said.
Sermet Koc, a veteran forensic expert and professor who has practiced autopsies for decades in Turkey, agreed with the assessment that it was a direct hit to the head rather than from a ricochet.
“Moreover, the size of the entry wound may indicate the bullet wasn’t fired from a simple gun or rifle but from a more sophisticated weapon,” he told MEE, raising the possibility of sniper fire.
The report said fragments of a bullet were discovered in the brain. “All the metal fragments were preserved and handed over to the Public Prosecution directly,“ it said.
The third expert, who asked to remain anonymous, said that several fractures in skull bone and the damage inside the head indicated that the bullet was a direct hit.
The report summarized the cause of death as follows: “We attribute the cause of death to hemorrhage, swelling and rupture of the brain substance resulting from being injured by a bullet that penetrated the skull cavity, fragmented and lodged.”
On Tuesday, Israel’s military said it was “highly likely” Eygi was killed by Israeli fire “indirectly and unintentionally”.
Eyewitnesses have disputed the Israeli claim, telling MEE that she was not near any violence at the time she was killed.
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," the activist previously told MEE, speaking on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
Eygi's death echoes the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akhlah, who was shot dead by Israel in the West Bank in May 2023.
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 has grown about the incident and the US response, his 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".
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