The family of Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi who was killed by Israeli soldiers, will meet U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken next Monday. Eygi's sister told Reuters on Tuesday that they would call for an independent U.S.-led probe into her killing.
Eygi was killed on Sept. 6 as she took part in a protest against settlement expansion in the West Bank 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," Ozden 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 U.S. 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. Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, an area Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state. Israel has built a thickening array of settlements there that international law and most countries deem illegal. Israel cites historical and biblical ties to the area. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) says Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there are illegal. 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.
Turkish prosecutors on Sept. 11 opened an investigation into the killing of Eygi, 26, who was buried in a town in western Türkiye after her body was repatriated to her ancestral homeland.
She was a human rights activist and a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, which supports Palestinians using peaceful and civil methods against Israel's occupation. A preliminary investigation by Israel found that Eygi was "highly likely" hit "indirectly and unintentionally" by Israeli fire that was targeting a "main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks" during the protest. Video evidence and witness accounts, however, have contradicted Israel's version of events, with many saying she was directly hit by an Israeli sniper. A report by The Washington Post also revealed that Eygi was shot more than 30 minutes after the peak of confrontations with Israeli forces and about 20 minutes after protesters had moved over 200 yards (180 meters) down the main road, away from Israeli forces.