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RAMALLAH, West Financial institution — The Israeli army stated Tuesday an American activist killed within the West Financial institution final week was probably shot “not directly and unintentionally” by its troopers, drawing a powerful rebuke from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the activist’s household.
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Israel stated a prison investigation has been launched into the killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old activist from Seattle who was collaborating in an illustration in opposition to settlements. Medical doctors who handled Eygi, who additionally held Turkish citizenship, stated she was shot within the head.
Blinken condemned the “unprovoked and unjustified” killing when requested concerning the Israeli inquiry at a information convention in London.
“Nobody ought to be shot whereas attending a protest,” he stated. “The Israeli safety forces must make some basic adjustments in the best way they function within the West Financial institution.”
Eygi’s household within the U.S. launched a press release saying “we’re deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a skilled sniper was in any means unintentional. The disregard proven for human life within the inquiry is appalling.”
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Throughout Friday’s demonstration, clashes broke out between Palestinians throwing stones and Israeli troops firing tear fuel and ammunition, in response to Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli protester who witnessed the taking pictures of Eygi.
Pollak stated the violence had subsided a few half hour earlier than Eygi was shot, after protesters and activists had withdrawn a number of hundred meters (yards) away from the positioning of the demonstration. Pollak stated he noticed two Israeli troopers mount the roof of a close-by house, practice a gun within the group’s course and fireplace, with one bullet hitting Eygi.
Israel stated its inquiry into Eygi’s killing “discovered that it’s extremely probably that she was hit not directly and unintentionally by (Israeli military) fireplace which was not aimed toward her, however aimed on the key instigator of the riot.” It expressed its “deepest remorse” at her dying.
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Worldwide Solidarity Motion, the activist group Egyi was volunteering with, stated it “solely rejects” the Israeli assertion and that the “shot was aimed straight at her.”
The killing got here amid a surge of violence within the West Financial institution because the Israel-Hamas struggle started in October, with rising Israeli raids, assaults by Palestinian militants on Israelis, assaults by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and heavier army crackdowns on Palestinian protests.
Israel says it totally investigates allegations of its forces killing civilians and holds them accountable. It says troopers typically must make split-second choices whereas working in areas the place militants cover amongst civilians. However human rights teams say troopers are very not often prosecuted, and even in essentially the most surprising instances _ and people captured on video — they typically get comparatively mild sentences.
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The Palestinian Authority held a funeral procession for Eygi within the West Financial institution metropolis of Nablus on Monday. Turkish authorities stated they’re engaged on repatriating her physique to Turkey for burial within the Aegean coastal city of Didim, as per her household’s needs.
Eygi’s uncle stated in an interview with the Turkish TV channel HaberTurk that she stored her go to to the West Financial institution secret from no less than a few of her relations. She stated she was touring to Jordan to assist Palestinians there, he stated.
“She hid the truth that she was going to Palestine. She blocked us from her social media posts in order that we’d not see them,” Yilmaz Eygi stated.
The deaths of Americans within the West Financial institution have drawn worldwide consideration, such because the deadly taking pictures of a outstanding Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, in 2022 within the Jenin refugee camp.
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A number of unbiased investigations and reporting by The Related Press decided that Abu Akleh was probably killed by Israeli fireplace. Months later, the army stated there was a “excessive likelihood” one in all its troopers had mistakenly killed her however that nobody could be punished.
In January 2022, Omar Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian-American, died of a coronary heart assault after Israeli troops at a checkpoint dragged him from his automotive and made him lie facedown, sure, quickly gagged and blindfolded. The army dominated out prison expenses and stated it was reprimanding one commander and eradicating two others from management roles for 2 years.
The U.S. had deliberate to sanction a army unit linked to abuses of Palestinians within the West Financial institution however ended up dropping the plan.
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The deaths of Palestinians who do not need twin nationality not often obtain the identical scrutiny.
Human rights teams say Israel army investigations into Palestinians’ deaths replicate a sample of impunity. B’Tselem, a number one Israeli watchdog, turned so pissed off that in 2016 it halted its decades-long follow of aiding investigations and known as them a “whitewash.”
Final 12 months, an Israeli court docket acquitted a member of the paramilitary Border Police charged with reckless manslaughter within the lethal taking pictures of 32-year-old Eyad Hallaq, an autistic Palestinian man in Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis in 2020. The case had drawn comparisons to the police killing of George Floyd in america.
In 2017, Israeli soldier Elor Azaria was convicted for manslaughter and served 9 months after he killed a wounded, incapacitated Palestinian attacker within the West Financial institution metropolis of Hebron. The fight medic was caught on video fatally taking pictures Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, who was mendacity immobile on the bottom.
That case deeply divided Israelis, with the army saying Azaria had clearly violated its code of ethics, whereas many Israelis _ significantly on the nationalist proper — defended his actions and accused army brass of second-guessing a soldier working in harmful situations.
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