Turkish-American activist shot dead by Israeli forces in occupied West Bank

Israeli occupation forces have shot dead an American activist of Turkish descent during a peaceful weekly anti-settlement march in the West Bank.

26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was shot in the head in the town of Beita, near Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Eygi was in the West Bank to volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which supports and protects Palestinian farmers from attacks by the Israeli army and settlers.

Eygi is the third ISM volunteer killed by Israeli forces in Palestine, along with dozens of other foreign activists.

The most famous case is that of Rachel Corrie, who was crushed to death by the tracks of an Israeli tank in the Rafah region of Gaza in 2003.

‘Attempt to silence pro-Palestine voices’

Hamas has condemned the killing, describing it as an example of its ongoing attacks on foreign activists in Palestinian territories.

“These crimes continue in the West Bank with systematic and ongoing attacks on solidarity activists by the occupying army and its settler gangs, as happens in all peaceful solidarity events and marches in the towns and cities of the West Bank threatened by colonization and Judaization projects,” the movement said in a statement.

The statement said the regime aims to terrorize and suppress any voice calling for the freedom of the Palestinian people or standing in solidarity with them, in light of criminal settlement and Judaization projects and the genocide in Gaza.

Hamas called on the international community and the United Nations to take immediate action to confront the occupation regime and hold it accountable for its fascist behavior, which violates international law.

Hamas’ statement also criticized the broad US military support for Israel. Hamas said the bullets that killed the American activist came from the US.

“We also call on the US administration to reconsider its biased policies and support for the occupation’s crimes and massacres against our Palestinian people, which today led to the death of an American citizen at the hands of its criminal army.”

Turkey also issued a statement condemning the killing of the young girl.

The statement said it “learned with great sadness that our citizen named Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was killed by Israeli occupation soldiers in the city of Nablus”.