Hundreds in West Bank mourn slain US-Turkish activist

Hundreds of mourners gathered Monday in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, to pay respects to a US-Turkish activist killed while protesting Israeli settlements in a nearby town.

The body of the 26-year-old activist, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, was wrapped in a Palestinian flag, with her head covered by a keffiyeh, a traditional scarf symbolising the Palestinian struggle against Israel.

Palestinian security forces carried her body through the streets of Nablus, accompanied by the sound of Palestinian bagpipes before a wreath was placed over her remains as a trumpet sounded.

“Palestine will always remember and honour your sacrifice, Aysenur,” said a hand-lettered sign one man carried near the front of the procession, which began at Nablus’s Rafidia hospital.

The UN rights office said Israeli forces killed Eygi with a “shot in the head”. The mayor of Beita and the Palestinian news agency Wafa also reported that Israeli soldiers killed her.

The Israeli army acknowledged it had opened fire in the Beita area and said it was “looking into reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of shots fired”.

The United Nations said Eygi had been taking part in a “peaceful anti-settlement protest” in Beita, the scene of weekly demonstrations.

Turkey condemned her killing, while the United States called it “tragic” and pressed its ally Israel to investigate.

“We have urged a swift, thorough and transparent investigation, and are urgently working to get more information” about the circumstances of her death, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said on Monday.

‘Honoured’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara would do everything possible to ensure “that Aysenur Ezgi’s death does not go unpunished”.

“We will continue our fight against Israel at the highest level by taking it to the (International) Court of Justice,” he said.

Maryam Dag, who attended the memorial, said the mourners want accountability but “we have no trust in the Israeli government nor in Western authorities”.

The commemoration for Eygi was postponed from Sunday, due to a dispute between the United States and Turkey over “details such as the burial location and the route her body would take”, said Mahmud al-Aloul, a senior official of Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority that has limited administrative powers in the West Bank.

Aloul said that “Palestine would be honoured for the martyr to be buried here”.

Since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel which triggered war in Gaza, Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 662 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

At least 23 Israelis, including security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, according to Israeli officials.

Israeli settlements, where about 490,000 people live in the West Bank, are illegal under international law.