Turkish authorities are working to bring the body of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, the Turkish American activist shot dead by Israeli forces in the West Bank last Friday, to Türkiye, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Öncü Keçeli said Monday.
“Land crossings from Palestine to Jordan were shut down by Israel as of yesterday. Upon her family’s request, we are working on the option of bringing the body directly to Türkiye by plane to avoid further delays,” Keçeli said in a statement on X.
The Turkish Consulate in Jerusalem is in touch with local authorities to complete the process as soon as possible, while the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles is coordinating a trip for Eygi’s family to Türkiye, Keçeli added.
Palestinians in the West Bank will also hold a funeral for Eygi on Monday.
A military cortege will carry Eygi’s body out of the Rafidia Hospital to the ambulance a kilometer away and the official procedure to transfer her body will begin.
Türkiye strongly condemned Eygi’s killing, which has sparked international outrage, calls for accountability and intensified pressure to end the war in Gaza.
Eygi was participating in a protest against illegal settlement expansion in the town of Beita, near Nablus in the northern West Bank, when Israeli soldiers opened fire with live bullets.
Official Palestinian news agency Wafa confirmed that Eygi was an American citizen and a volunteer with the Fazaa campaign, an initiative aimed at supporting and protecting Palestinian farmers from the ongoing violations by illegal Israeli settlers and the army.
Eygi was involved with the International Solidarity Movement, the same organization as legendary peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was murdered by Israel as she tried to stop the demolition of a Palestinian house in Gaza in 2003.
Fouad Nafaa, director of the Rafidia Hospital, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that Eygi arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound to the head. She succumbed to her injuries despite attempts by medical teams to revive her, according to Nafaa.
Nablus Governor Ghassan Daghlas said Saturday that an autopsy confirmed Eygi was killed by an Israeli sniper's bullet to the head.
Born in Antalya, Türkiye, in 1998, Eygi moved to Seattle, Washington, with her parents, Rabia Birden Eygi and Mehmet Suat Eygi, when she was less than 1 year old.
She graduated from the University of Washington in June, where she studied psychology and Middle Eastern languages and cultures.
One of her last words to her friends a few hours before she was killed was, “We need to be doing more,” according to one of Eygi’s friends, Imam Akram Baioumy from the Muslim Association of Puget Sound, during a vigil for Eygi in Seattle on Sunday.
Tensions have escalated throughout the occupied West Bank as Israel continues its attacks on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 40,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7 last year.
Estimates indicate that around 700,000 Israeli settlers live in roughly 300 illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
All Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal under international law.
At least 691 people have been killed and over 5,700 injured by Israeli fire in the West Bank since then, according to the Health Ministry.
