Israeli soldiers shot and killed an American-Turkish protester endangering no one in Beita скачать в хорошем качестве

Israeli soldiers shot and killed an American-Turkish protester endangering no one in Beita

On Friday, 6 September 2024, about 100-150 Palestinians from the town of Beita and around 20 international and Israeli activists gathered for the weekly demonstration against the outpost of Evyatar, built on town land in Jabal Sbeih. Soldiers arrived before noon and deployed near the public park in the area of the Nimer grove, on a hill in the southern part of the town, where prayers are regularly held before the demonstration. At around 12:15 P.M., as locals gathered for the prayers, Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, an international activist, arrived in the area with other international activists. The prayers proceeded without incident, and then, at around 1:00 P.M., the residents and activists began leaving through the park gate. Most of the residents began making their way back home, with some heading for their cars in the parking lot at the entrance to the park and others walking down the road towards town homes. At that point, the soldiers advanced towards the park gate and clashes developed with local youths, during which the youths threw stones and the soldiers fired tear gas and live rounds at them. Down the road, some youths set tires on fire, while the other residents and the activists retreated towards the town. The activists went to the intersection further down the road, near some olive groves and homes. Some of them took shelter in the groves, while the soldiers remained up the hill, more than 200 meters away. Two or three military jeeps were parked near two homes below the park, and some soldiers took over the roof of one of them. At that point, the clashes had ended, and residents were blocking the road that leads from the park to town homes with rocks and a dumpster, to stop the soldiers from raiding the town. Ezgi Eygi was among the activists who hid in the olive grove. At 1:48 P.M., after about 20 minutes of relative calm, two shots were fired in succession at the olive grove, from the roof taken over by soldiers. One bullet hit a metal object, and a fragment of it hit a teen from the town in the buttocks. He was lightly wounded and treated on the spot. The other bullet hit Ezgi Eygi, who was standing about 15 meters away from the injured boy, in the head. She fell to the ground, unconscious. Within several minutes, she was put in an ambulance that had been standing by and was taken to a hospital in Nablus, where physicians tried to resuscitate her unsuccessfully. She was pronounced dead at around 2:30 P.M. The killing of an American-Turkish citizen attracted a great deal of media attention, prompting the Israeli military, which rarely publicizes investigations into the death of Palestinians anymore, to release what it called a “preliminary investigation” on 10 September 2024, based entirely on statements soldiers gave as part of the operational review. The military said Ezgi Eygi was shot “with high probability by indirect and unintended IDF fire that was aimed at a central instigator.” This claim is unreasonable, and B’Tselem’s investigation disproves it. First, testimonies B’Tselem collected reveal the clashes were over by the time the shooting occurred, and that the soldiers were positioned in an elevated location overlooking the area, where they were under no threat from the Palestinians and activists who were far away from them inside the olive grove, so there was no justification to use lethal fire. Furthermore, it is unlikely that the shot that hit Ezgi Eygi squarely in the head was aimed at another person, when the only person next to her was another international activist. As previously reported by B’Tselem, the outpost of Evyatar was established on Palestinian land, not as the private initiative of a few settlers but as part of Israel’s settlement policy in the West Bank, with the full cooperation of all the relevant Israeli authorities. For the state, stealing land and putting settlements on them is not enough, and it also insists on forbidding Palestinian residents from protesting these acts, using force – some of it lethal – to quash any attempt at resistance.