Aysenur Ezgi Eygi: Lukewarm US response to Israel's killing of Turkish-American citizen draws sharp criticism

After the news of Israel's killing of US-Turkish citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi spread throughout the US and international media landscape, the Biden administration said the news was "tragic", offering condolences to the family while refraining from laying the blame on Israel or condemning the incident.

Instead, the US State Department said it would gather the information about her death and then make further comment at a later point.

"We deplore this tragic loss. Now, the most important thing to do is gather the facts," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a press availability while visiting the Dominican Republic.

"Any actions that we take are driven by the facts. So first things first, let's find out exactly what happened."

An activist who was with Ezgi Eygi at the time of the shooting told Middle East Eye she was deliberately shot in the head. Ezgi Eygi, the activist and others were taking part in a weekly demonstration of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian solidarity activists against an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank near the Palestinian town of Beita.

The activist said they retreated from soldiers, who had shot tear gas into the crowd. Then two rounds of live ammunition were fired at the group, the activist said, one of which struck Ezgi Eygi in the head.

"When she was shot, she was standing there doing absolutely nothing with one other woman - it was a deliberate shot because they shot from a very, very, very far distance," said the activist, who did not want to be identified.

"It was a deliberate shot to the head."

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