US citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was fatally shot by IDF soldiers during a pro-Palestinian protest that took place near Nabulus in the northern West Bank on Friday.
According to AP News, protests started out as peaceful, but turned violent when activists began throwing stones at Israeli Defense Force soldiers, prompting them to fire live ammunition into the crowd.
One of the IDF bullets tragically struck Eygi in the head, killing her on site.
From AP News:
“The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an ‘instigator of violent activity’ in the area of the protest.
The killing came amid a surge of violence in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, with increasing Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis, attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and heavier military crackdowns on Palestinian protests. More than 690 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials.”
Biden State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed that the U.S. government was aware of the death in statements he made on Friday.
“We offer our deepest condolences to her family and loved ones,” he said. “We are urgently gathering more information about the circumstances of her death, and will have more to say as we learn more.”
The White House also responded to the reports stating it was “deeply disturbed” by the death while urging the IDF to open an investigation into the incident.
Another activist who was at the protest told reporters that there were “two separate shots of live ammunition,” that were fired by officers into the crowd.
Hellbound and Down 