# US and Turkish American activist Aysenur Eygi killed during West Bank protest

Israeli soldiers killed Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a Turkish American woman, during an anti-settlement protest in the West Bank, setting off calls for an investigation from the United States and Turkey.

The evidence packet says U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed the death of the 26-year-old woman and that the White House was “deeply disturbed” by the killing. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli also confirmed her Turkish citizenship and said Turkey would make every effort to bring those responsible to justice. Those reactions give the incident immediate diplomatic weight.

The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an “instigator of violent activity” in the protest area. That phrasing signals an internal review, but it does not amount to an admission of fault. The source packet therefore supports a report about a killing under investigation, not a resolved account of what happened.

Eygi’s background also made the case resonate beyond the immediate protest. The evidence says she had recently graduated from the University of Washington, where she studied psychology and Middle Eastern languages and cultures. It also says she had been active in campus advocacy and had joined earlier protests at Standing Rock as a teenager. Those details help explain why her death drew attention in academic and activist circles.

Her friends and professors described her as deeply committed to justice and as someone who listened carefully to others. The packet also says she had traveled to the West Bank to bear witness. That suggests the protest was part of a broader pattern of international solidarity activism, though the source does not specify exactly what role she played at the demonstration when she was shot.

The political context is severe. The AP report says Israeli forces had been operating in the West Bank and that Palestinians feared a widening of the war in Gaza. Elsewhere, the war had already killed tens of thousands of Palestinians according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and a polio vaccination campaign was under way in southern Gaza. Those details place Eygi’s death inside a wider regional crisis, not an isolated protest event.

Still, the central newsroom facts remain simple. A 26-year-old Turkish American woman was killed by Israeli soldiers during a protest in the West Bank, and both Washington and Ankara demanded answers. The exact circumstances are still being reviewed, so any fuller judgment would have to wait for the results of the inquiry.

Until then, the case stands as another fatal episode in a conflict where protests, military operations and diplomatic pressure intersect with deadly consequences.