By JACK JEFFERY
RAMALLAH, West Financial institution (AP) — The Israeli army mentioned Tuesday an American activist killed within the West Financial institution final week was doubtless shot “not directly and unintentionally” by its troopers, drawing a powerful rebuke from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and her household.
Israel mentioned a legal investigation has been launched into the killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old activist from Seattle who was participating in an indication towards settlements within the Palestinian territory. Docs who handled Eygi, who additionally held Turkish citizenship, mentioned she was shot within the head.
Blinken condemned the “unprovoked and unjustified” deadly capturing when requested in regards to the Israeli inquiry at a information convention in London, and mentioned the U.S. would clarify to its ally that such actions are “not acceptable.”
“Nobody — nobody — ought to be shot and killed for attending a protest,” he mentioned. “Israeli safety forces have to 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 educated sniper was in any manner unintentional. The disregard proven for human life within the inquiry is appalling.”
Throughout Friday’s demonstration, clashes broke out between Palestinians throwing stones and Israeli troops firing tear gasoline and ammunition, based on Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli protester who witnessed the capturing of Eygi.
Pollak mentioned the violence had subsided a couple of half hour earlier than Eygi was shot, after protesters and activists had withdrawn a number of hundred meters (yards) away from the location of the demonstration. Pollak mentioned he noticed two Israeli troopers mount the roof of a close-by residence, practice a gun within the group’s route and hearth, with one bullet hitting Eygi.
Israel mentioned its inquiry into Eygi’s killing “discovered that it’s extremely doubtless that she was hit not directly and unintentionally by (Israeli military) hearth which was not geared toward her, however aimed on the key instigator of the riot.” It expressed its “deepest remorse” at her demise.
Worldwide Solidarity Motion, the activist group Egyi was volunteering with, mentioned it “totally rejects” the Israeli assertion and that the “shot was aimed immediately at her.”
The killing got here amid a surge of violence within the West Financial institution for the reason that Israel-Hamas warfare 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 completely investigates allegations of its forces killing civilians and holds them accountable. It says troopers usually must make split-second choices whereas working in areas the place militants conceal 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 usually get comparatively mild sentences.
The Palestinian Authority held a funeral procession for Eygi within the West Financial institution metropolis of Nablus on Monday. Turkish authorities mentioned 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 mentioned in an interview with the Turkish TV channel HaberTurk that she saved her go to to the West Financial institution secret from a minimum of a few of her relations. She mentioned she was touring to Jordan to assist Palestinians there, he mentioned.
“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 mentioned.
The deaths of Americans within the West Financial institution have drawn worldwide consideration, such because the deadly capturing of a outstanding Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, in 2022 within the Jenin refugee camp.
A number of impartial investigations and reporting by The Related Press decided that Abu Akleh was doubtless killed by Israeli hearth. Months later, the army mentioned there was a “excessive likelihood” certainly one of 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, certain, quickly gagged and blindfolded. The army dominated out legal prices and mentioned 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.
The deaths of Palestinians who should not have twin nationality not often obtain the identical scrutiny.
Human rights teams say Israel army investigations into Palestinians’ deaths mirror a sample of impunity. B’Tselem, a number one Israeli watchdog, grew to become so annoyed that in 2016 it halted its decades-long follow of aiding investigations and known as them a “whitewash.”
Final yr, an Israeli courtroom acquitted a member of the paramilitary Border Police charged with reckless manslaughter within the lethal capturing of 32-year-old Eyad Hallaq, an autistic Palestinian man in Jerusalem’s Previous 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 capturing 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 circumstances.
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Related Press reporters Matthew Lee and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.
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Comply with AP’s Gaza protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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