The family of a Turkish-American woman killed by Israel in the Israeli-occupied West Bank will meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday and call for an independent US-led probe into her killing, the woman’s sister told Reuters on Tuesday.
Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old Seattle resident and a new graduate of the University of Washington, was fatally shot by Israeli forces during a protest in the West Bank against illegal Israeli settlements on September 6 amid Israel’s war in Gaza.
“For the last three months, Blinken and State Department officials have repeatedly told us to wait for Israel, the government whose army perpetrated the crime against Ayşenur, to investigate itself. This cannot stand,” Özden Bennett, Eygi’s sister, said in a statement.
Bennett and Eygi’s widower, Hamid Ali, will be among the family members meeting Blinken and State Department officials.
Eygi’s killing and the surge of assaults on Palestinians in the West Bank have been criticized by Washington, but the US has announced no major policy change toward Israel, which the Turkish-American’s family has condemned. Blinken called Eygi’s killing “unprovoked.”
Israel has acknowledged its troops shot the activist but says it was an unintentional act during a demonstration that turned violent.
Turkey has opened an investigation into Eygi’s killing and will request international arrest warrants, Ankara said later in September, while President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey would go to the International Court of Justice over the matter.
Israel is waging a war in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, where tens of thousands have been killed in the last 14 months and over which Israel has faced genocide allegations that it denies. The Israeli assault followed an October 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas militants that killed about 1,200 and in which dozens were taken hostage.