The United States and the United Nations have called for a thorough investigation into the fatal shooting Friday of an American woman from Seattle who was protesting Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was killed near the town of Beita when Israeli forces opened fire on the demonstrators, witnesses reported.
Two local doctors told the Associated Press Eygi was shot in the head.
Israel Defense Forces officials claimed on Friday that troops opened fire toward a protest “instigator” who hurled “rocks,” and were investigating reports that a “foreign national was killed.”
“We would want to see a full investigation of the circumstances and that people should be held accountable,” said Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for the UN secretary general.
Civilians “must be protected at all times,” he emphasized.
A spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council said Washington was “deeply disturbed by the tragic death of an American citizen.”
“We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask for more information and request an investigation into the incident,” said Sean Savett.
Eygi’s family grieving the “fiercely passionate human rights activist” said the United States should launch an investigation, adding that she “was killed by a bullet that video shows came from an Israeli military shooter.”
“We welcome the White House’s statement of condolences, but given the circumstances of Aysenur’s killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate,” they said in a statement.
“We call on President (Joe) Biden, Vice President (Kamala) Harris, and Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a U.S. citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties,” the family said.
Eygi, who graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle this spring, had been volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement, which denied any confrontation with the Israeli military, CNN reported.
“Aysenur was more than 200 meters away from where the Israeli soldiers were, and there were no confrontations there at all in the minutes before she was shot,” it said in a statement.
“Regardless, from such distance, neither she, nor anyone else could have possibly been perceived as posing any threat. She was killed in cold blood,” the statement added.
Eygi’s Seattle community was crushed by her death.
“I’m absolutely devastated. The whole community is,” Aria Fani, a UW assistant professor of Middle Eastern languages and culture who taught Eygi, told the Seattle Times. “It’s a huge tragedy.”
Fani called Eygi one of the “most brilliant” students he had ever worked with.
Eygi was born in Turkey, where she also has citizenship, but moved with her family to Seattle when she was a year old.
