Washington Post probe challenges IDF’s findings on fatal West Bank shooting of a US activist

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi.

Haaretz and Ben Samuels report in Haaretz on 12 September 2024:

A Washington Post investigation published on Thursday found that Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, the American-Turkish activist who Israel says was accidentally killed by the IDF last Friday in the West Bank village of Beita, was shot “more than a half-hour after the height of confrontations”.

In contrast, a preliminary IDF investigation found that Eygi was hit by IDF fire aimed at a “central instigator” during a “violent gathering.”

The Post’s investigation, which is based on conversations with 13 eyewitnesses and review of more than 50 videos and pictures, reveals that IDF soldiers fired in the direction of the activist from about 182 meters (200 yards) and some 20 minutes after protesters had moved down the main road. According to the Post, “a Palestinian teenager, who witnesses say was standing about 18 meters (20 yards) from Eygi, was wounded by Israeli fire; the IDF would not say if he was a target.”

“Citing an ongoing investigation,” the report added that, “the IDF also declined to answer questions from The Post about why its forces fired toward the demonstrators so long after they had retreated, and from a distance where they posed no apparent threat.”

On Tuesday, the Israeli army said that an investigation into the killing of Ezgi Eygi shows that she was hit “with high probability by indirect and unintended IDF fire that was aimed at a central instigator.”  The IDF’s statement added that the incident occurred “during a violent gathering of dozens of Palestinian suspects who burned tires and threw stones at [Israeli] forces at the Beita intersection.”

U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that Israel must do more to prevent incidents like the fatal shooting of an American protester against settlement expansion in the West Bank, calling her death “totally unacceptable” and saying that he was “outraged and deeply saddened.”

In a statement, Biden said that while Israel has taken responsibility for her death, the U.S. government expects continued access as the investigation into the circumstances of the shooting unfolds.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said following the IDF’s probe that these findings show that the shooting was “unprovoked and unjustified,” and that “Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement,” he said.

“No one should be shot and killed for attending a protest,” Blinken told a news conference in London, delivering his harshest comments to date against the Israeli military.

Vice President Kamala Harris called the death a “horrific tragedy” and said that the U.S. would continue to “press the government of Israel for answers.”  According to Harris, the U.S. must be given access to the findings of the Israeli army’s investigation so that “we can have confidence in the results” and ensure “full accountability.”  “The shooting that led to her death is unacceptable and raises legitimate questions about the conduct of IDF personnel in the West Bank. Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again,” Harris said in a statement.

“The United States will continue to hold accountable anyone in the West Bank – Israelis and Palestinians – who stokes violence and undermines peace and stability,” Harris added.

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi’s family slammed the Israeli army’s preliminary inquiry into her death as “wholly inadequate,” adding that they are “deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional.”  They said that she was “taking shelter in an olive grove” during a protest where she “was peacefully standing for justice as an international observer and witness to Palestinian suffering” when she was shot by an Israeli solder.  “This cannot be misconstrued as anything except a deliberate, targeted and precise attack by the military against an unarmed civilian,” the family said.

The family called on President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken “to order an independent investigation into the Israeli military’s deliberate targeting and killing of a U.S. citizen” and asked for transparency from Israeli officials.

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