American woman shot dead during protest in West Bank; witnesses say IDF shot at her

An American woman was killed in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the US State Department said. Two witnesses said the woman was shot in the head by Israeli forces who opened fire.

The woman, Aysenur Eygi, a 26-year-old volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian activist group, had been attending a protest against the expansion of Jewish settlements in the town of Beita when she was shot, her colleagues said. Copies of her passport circulated online, showing she was born in Turkey, and the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that she was a citizen.

The Israel Defense Forces said they were “investigating reports that a foreign national was killed by gunfire in the area.” The statement said Israeli forces in the Beita area of ​​the northern West Bank “responded with fire to a key instigator of the violence who threw stones at the forces and threatened them.”

“The details of the incident and the circumstances under which it was taken are currently under review,” it said.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement that the United States was “informed of the tragic death of American citizen Aysenur Eygi today in the West Bank.”

“We extend our deepest condolences to her family and loved ones. We are urgently gathering more information about the circumstances of her death and will provide more information as we learn more. For us, there is no higher priority than the safety of the American people,” Miller said.

Jonathan Pollak, an ISM volunteer, said the shooting occurred about 30 minutes after the protesters left, at a time when there were no active clashes and while foreign volunteers, including Eygi, stood about 180 meters away from the Israeli military, observing the scene.

“There was no justification for that shot,” he said.

When he and his colleagues arrived in Beita on Friday, soldiers were already stationed around a site where people were supposed to perform Friday prayers, he said. As soon as the prayers were over, “the clashes started,” he said. Soldiers used tear gas and live ammunition “almost immediately.” There were also “stones thrown at the soldiers,” he said.

The ISM activists retreated a short distance, down a hill about 200 meters from the town where the soldiers were stationed. “We stood there for about half an hour,” he said. The soldiers occupied a rooftop in the town, “a controlling rooftop,” he said. Eygi was in an olive grove, according to Pollak and another ISM volunteer, who spoke on the condition that she be identified by her first name, Mariam, for fear of retaliation.

“I didn’t see them at the moment of the shooting because I had my eyes on the soldiers,” Pollak said of Eygi. “I saw the soldiers shooting. I saw the flare, I saw them aiming,” he said. Both he and Mariam said there were two shots – one hit a metal object, the other hit Eygi in the head.

“We were clearly visible to the army, nothing happened where we were standing,” Mariam said. “We were foreigners,” she said, adding that the Palestinian youths who had clashed with the soldiers were much farther away, higher up the hill. “We were just standing there,” she said.

Fahim reported from Beirut, Morris from Berlin and Hudson from Washington.