A forensic medical report from the Palestinian Ministry of Justice has confirmed it was a gunshot by Israeli military forces that killed Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi.
Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish American activist, was shot dead by the Israeli military on Sept. 6 while participating in a peaceful march on Mount Abu Sbeih in Beita in Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
Dr. Rayyan al-Ali, the director of the Forensic Medicine Institute at An-Najah National University, conducted the preliminary external examination at Rafidia Surgical Hospital on behalf of the Public Prosecution in Nablus.
Eygi was transported to the hospital by ambulance at 2:06 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. Upon arrival, she was found having no vital signs, and in cardiac arrest with dilated and fixed pupils.
A preliminary examination revealed "a gunshot entry wound on the left side of her head, behind the left ear, with brain tissue protruding through the wound."
"Despite immediate endotracheal intubation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, she was declared dead at 2:35 p.m."
The body was subsequently transferred to the Forensic Medicine Institute at An-Najah National University for further examination and autopsy.
The forensic report attributed Eygi's death "to hemorrhage, edema and rupture of brain tissue caused by the penetrating gunshot wound."
The projectile was described as "fragmented and stable, with a trajectory inside the cranial cavity traveling from left to right in a nearly straight path."
US President Joe Biden called the shooting last week by an Israeli sniper in the occupied West Bank an "accident."
"Apparently it was an accident – it ricocheted off the ground, and she got hit by accident. I'm working that out now," Biden told reporters Tuesday.
The Israeli army said that it is "highly likely" that Eygi was "indirectly and unintentionally" hit by fire from its forces.
However, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel's killing of Eygi was "unprovoked and unjustified" and that it is "unacceptable."
Eygi, born in Antalya, Türkiye in 1998, graduated in June from the University of Washington, where she studied psychology and Middle Eastern languages and cultures.
She arrived in the West Bank last Tuesday to volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement as part of an effort to support and safeguard Palestinian farmers.
