American activist shot in the head at West Bank protest

An American activist was shot dead in the head on Friday, which the official Palestinian news agency Wafa attributed to Israeli security forces, while participating in a demonstration against the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank. She is Aysenur Ezgi, 26 years old and of Turkish origin. Ezgi was protesting against the expansion of settlements in Beita, near the city of Nablus.

In images distributed by the Palestinian emergency services, paramedics are seen treating the activist, initially inside the ambulance while placing a bandage on her head. Shortly afterwards, after she was transferred to the Rafidia hospital in Nablus, her death was confirmed. “We tried to resuscitate her, but unfortunately she died,” the director of the hospital, Fouad Nafaa, told Reuters. Neither the Israeli army nor the US Embassy have yet commented.

Several shots were fired during a weekly protest march in the area known as Sabih Mountain in Beita. One hit the American woman in the head and another hit a Palestinian man in the leg, medic Fayez Abdul Jabbar told the Palestinian online news channel Quds News before the death was confirmed.

Mount Sabih is a site where settlers from the nearby radical settlement Eviatar have attacked local people and hosts regular protests by international activists in solidarity with Palestine. On Friday’s protest, according to local residents, the number of activists was higher, Israeli security forces were present and skirmishes broke out.

Standing next to Ezgi’s body, Ghassan Daghlas, the governor of Nablus (the region to which Beita belongs), addressed the media in Arabic to stress that the activist was participating in a “peaceful protest” and to tell US President Joe Biden: “These are American bullets.” […] They kill an American citizen just like they kill children in Gaza, Jenin or Tulkarem.”

Follow all the international information at Facebook and Xor in our weekly newsletter.