Aysenur Ezgi Eygi

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was born in Antalya, Turkey, raised in Seattle, and graduated from the University of Washington in the spring of 2024 with a degree in psychology. Soon after, she traveled to the occupied West Bank as a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, joining Palestinians demonstrating against the expansion of Israeli settlements. A professor who had tried to talk her out of going recalled that she told him “she needed to bear witness for the sake of her own humanity,” the Associated Press reported.

On September 6, 2024, Eygi was shot in the head during the weekly protest in the village of Beita, near Nablus, overlooking the settlement of Evyatar. Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli protester who witnessed the shooting, told AP that after a communal prayer and clashes with troops, the demonstrators had retreated and the clashes had subsided when two soldiers on a rooftop trained a gun on the group and fired; he saw Eygi “lying on the ground, next to an olive tree, bleeding to death.” Two Palestinian doctors confirmed she died of a gunshot wound to the head. The Israeli military later said it was “highly likely” she had been hit “indirectly and unintentionally” by fire directed at a protest “instigator.” She was buried in her family’s hometown of Didim, Turkey, in a coffin draped with the Turkish flag, as thousands lined the streets.

Sources

• Israeli soldiers killed American in West Bank, witness tells AP — AP
• Aysenur Ezgi Eygi: American activist killed by Israeli fire laid to rest — AP