A 26-year-old female US peace activist succumbed to her wounds on Friday, Sep 6, after being shot and critically injured in the head by Israeli occupation forces in Beita, a town located south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. The activist, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, an American of Turkish descent, was shot in the head by live ammunition while participating in the weekly protest against settlement expansion.
Medical sources confirmed that the activist was rushed to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus and placed in the intensive care unit. Despite the efforts of medical teams to save her, she passed away due to her severe injuries. WAFA news agency indicated that the confrontation erupted when Israeli forces violently suppressed the protest, which involved firing live ammunition, stun grenades, and tear gas at demonstrators. The same incident also resulted in an 18-year-old Palestinian being injured by shrapnel in the thigh.
The activist was involved with the Faz’a campaign, which works to support and protect Palestinian farmers from Israeli military and settler violations. A month ago, another American citizen Amado Sison was shot in the leg by Israeli forces, he said, as he tried to flee tear gas and live fire.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, the American peace activist who was shot in the head by Israeli occupation forces in Beita, a town located south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, Friday, Sept 7, 2024 (Photo: WAFA)
According to Hadash MK Aida Touma-Sliman, “The Israeli army killed Aysenur Ezgi Eyg, a young American-Turkish peace activist who was protesting in the West Bank with the people of Beita village near Nablus. She was protesting the new settlement Evyatar, which has been promoted by Israeli ministers in recent years. May she rest in power. Aysenur is another victim of the ongoing ethnic cleansing happening every day in the West Bank. Her death will probably bring about condemnations from the U.S. administration. But the truth is that this administration is giving diplomatic and military cover to the Israeli government in its campaign of destruction and killing of the Palestinian people.”
Meanwhile, WAFA reported that a 13-year-old was killed Friday evening after being shot by Israeli forces near Nablus amid a clash between settlers and Palestinians villagers in the Qaryut village, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS).
PRCS said that its paramedics provided first aid treatment to a 13-year-old girl who sustained critical gunshot wounds in the chest after being shot by Israeli forces during confrontations in the village. It added that Bana Amjad Bakr was rushed to the Rafidia Hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly afterwards. Bana’s father, Amjad, said that his daughter was hit by Israeli army gunshots while she was along with her sisters in their room.
Earlier, settlers shot a young man, 34, with live gunfire, injuring him in the hand, at a time when they brutally beat up another leaving him in bruises. WAFA reported that settlers stormed the village and attacked the villagers’ houses in the southern part, pelting them with stones and setting tracts of farmland on fire.
According to UN figures, between October 7, 2023 and September 2, more than 652 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, in addition to two who died of wounds sustained prior to 7 October. Of them, 146 Palestinians have been killed and 54 injured in 55 airstrikes. By contrast, six Palestinians were killed in airstrikes in 2023 (up till October) and none in the preceding 3 years.
The Palestinian fatalities since 7 October 2023 include 634 killed by Israeli forces, eleven by Israeli settlers, and seven where it remains unknown whether the perpetrators were Israeli forces or settlers. During the same period, 18 Israelis, including 13 members of Israeli forces and five settlers, were killed by Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. In Israel, attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank resulted in the killing of ten Israelis and seven Palestinian perpetrators.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32093
