Palestinians Hold Funeral for Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, American Slain in West Bank

Middle East|Palestinians Hold Funeral for American Slain in West Bank

At a funeral procession on Monday in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the body of an American woman killed at a protest was carried out of a hospital morgue, wrapped in a Palestinian flag, as dozens of mourners erupted in chants demanding justice for her killing.

The woman, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was shot in the head on Friday, witnesses and Palestinian officials said, when Israeli forces opened fire during a protest she was attending in Beita, a village in the West Bank, against an Israeli settler outpost nearby. The Israeli military has said it is investigating her killing.

Ms. Eygi, who was born in Turkey, will be laid to rest there after a funeral service, “upon her family’s desire,” the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement. It added that the Turkish authorities were trying to fly her body directly to Turkey to avoid delays.

Mourners gathered at Rafidia Hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday afternoon, where Ms. Eygi was taken after she was shot. The brief funeral was attended by international and Israeli activists, Palestinian and Turkish officials, hospital staff and even children who stumbled upon the procession while walking home from school.

“She was here supporting an occupied country despite not being from there,” said Azmi Miri, a Palestinian psychological services trainee at the hospital who said he felt compelled to join the procession after hearing about Ms. Eygi’s killing.

The crowd followed her body as it was carried out of the hospital, stopping for a short Islamic prayer, before a marching band of Palestinian Authority security forces played in her honor. Her body was then taken in a van to be transported out of the Palestinian territories.