Funeral procession held for US-Turkish peace activist killed in West Bank

The Palestinian Authority has held a funeral procession for an American-Turkish activist who a witness says was shot and killed by Israeli forces last week during a demonstration against settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Dozens of mourners – including several leading officials of the western-backed authority – attended the procession in Nablus for Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old from Seattle who also held Turkish citizenship.

Eygi’s body was draped in a Palestinian flag and her face was covered with a traditional black-and-white keffiyeh as security forces carried her and then placed her into a Palestinian ambulance.

A Turkish foreign ministry spokesperson said the country was working on repatriating Eygi’s remains for burial in the Aegean coastal town of Didim according to her family’s wishes. Because the land crossing between the West Bank and Jordan was closed on Sunday after an attack on Israeli civilians, the ministry was trying to have Eygi’s body flown to Turkey.

US officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli peace activist who participated in Friday’s protest with Eygi, said she posed no threat when Israeli forces allegedly shot her. He said the killing happened during a period of calm after clashes between soldiers and Palestinian protesters.

Pollak said he saw two Israeli soldiers mount the roof of a nearby home, train a gun in the group’s direction and fire, with one of the bullets striking Eygi in the head.

The Israeli military has said it is investigating what happened. On Saturday it said an “initial inquiry” found that security forces had been deployed to disperse a riot near the town of Beita involving Palestinian and Israeli civilians that “included mutual rock hurling”. The security forces had fired shots in the air, the military said.

Eygi’s family has called on the Biden administration to launch an independent investigation into her killing. The family’s statement was published by the International Solidarity Movement, the organisation Eygi was volunteering with at the time of her death.

There has been an increase in violence in the West Bank since the Israel-Gaza war began in October, with increasing Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis, and attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians.