#beita

‘The Israeli soldiers were so happy after the sniper hit Aysenur’: An Eyewitness

September 14 2024 - Muneer Khdeer, a resident of Beita village in the occupied West Bank, witnessed the killing of activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi. He described what he saw:

“Every Friday for three years, we have been praying at a mosque in al-Masbah, opposite of Mount Sabih. After prayers, Israeli soldiers follow the young men who are heading home, which leads to scuffles. They fire tear gas and live rounds, and the young men throw stones at them,” Khdeer said.

“That day, the Israelis were firing live rounds towards the Palestinians and foreign volunteers. The two groups were about 300 metres [330 yards] apart, so the stones didn’t hit the soldiers. A sniper was among the soldiers because he placed a weapon on top of the wall. He fired two rounds, and one hit the Turkish woman, Aysenur. An ambulance took her away.

“The Israeli soldiers were so happy after the sniper hit Aysenur because they thought they had hit a Palestinian.”

The Israeli Occupation has murdered 17 Palestinians for protesting the demolition of their village Beita el-Foka since 2020.

– Mohammed Hamayyel, 15 (March 11, 2020) – Islam Dwikat, 22 (April 9, 2020) – Karam Amin Dwikat, 17 (October 15, 2023) – Issa Sliman Barham, 40 (May 14, 2021) – Tareq Ommar Snobar, 27 (May 16, 2021) – Zakaria Maher Hamayyel, 25 (May 28, 2021) – Mohammed Said Hamayyel, 15 (June 11, 2021) – Ahmad Zahi Bani Shamsa, 15 (June 16, 2021) – Shadi Ommar Sharafa, 41 (July 27, 2021) – Imad Ali Dwikat, 38 (August 6, 2021) – Mohammed Ali Khbeissa, 27 (September 24, 2021) – Jamil Jamal Abu Ayyash, 32 (December 1, 2021) – Fawaz Ahmad Hamayyel, 47 (April 13, 2022) – Immad Jareh Bani Shamsa, 16 (October 9, 2023) – Mohammed Ibrahim Adili, 13 (November 23, 2023) – Maath Ashraf Bani Shamsa, 17 (February 9, 2024) – Ameed Ghaleb Said al-Jaroub, 34 (March 22, 2024, died of a bullet wound injury to the head sustained on August 21, 2023)

SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 - Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak on the murder of 26-year-old Turkish-American peace activist and teacher Ayşenur Eygi, who was shot in the head by the Israeli Occupation Forces during a peaceful demonstration against illegal settlement activity:

"What happened today is no accident…It was quiet. There was nothing to justify the shot. The shot was taken to kill."

Full video transcript:

“What happened today is no accident. It is the continuation of the killing of 17 of Beita’s residents during demonstration since 2021. It is an intentional killing that is now receiving the light of day because she is an American citizen. It was an intentional killing that cannot be justified.  My name is Jonathan Pollak. I was there when she was shot. We got to Beita for the weekly demonstration against the settlement there. The army was already present where people pray in protest of the settlement. As soon as the prayer ended, clashes ensued, and the army shot tear gas and live ammunition immediately.  We were forced to retreat down towards the village and ended up standing at the outskirts of the built-up area of the village about 150-200 meters away from where the soldiers were. We stayed there for about half an hour. Soldiers at some point took over a rooftop that has a view over the entire area. including where we were.  It was quiet. There was nothing to justify the shot. The shot was taken to kill. There were two shots fired from the rooftop.  I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I know the difference in sound between tear gas, rubber coated bullets, live ammunition. These were two separate shots of live ammunition, one after the other. The first one hit the middle object and then a young man from a village in his thigh. And then I heard another shot, and then I heard people calling my name in English saying “we need help, we need help, come help us.” I ran over there, about 10 or 15 meters away behind me into the olive groves I found her lying on the ground beside the tree, bleeding from her head. I put my hand under her head to try to stop the bleeding. I took her pulse, she had a very weak pulse. We called the ambulance. From there we evacuated her to the village’s medical center, where the doctor came into the ambulance and continued into the hospital where they tried to resuscitate her but failed."

An Israeli military vehicle ran over a 17-year-old boy in the West Bank town of Beita, south of Nablus, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports. Wafa cited the Palestinian Red Crescent as saying the teenager was moved to a nearby hospital after being run over when Israeli forces were raiding the town, sparking confrontations with residents. It said Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters during confrontations.

Israel’s lie over the murder of U.S. activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi has been exposed, and in the process, so has Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s double standard on the worth of Palestinian lives. Read more at Mondoweiss.