Joe Biden has described the Israel Defense Force’s fatal shooting of the Turkish American protester Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi as “totally unacceptable” in his first extensive comments on her death.
In a statement on Wednesday, Biden said that Israel had “acknowledged responsibility” for Eygi’s death, but he stopped short of backing the demands put out by Eygi’s family and other human rights advocates for an independent inquiry into the fatal shooting of the American activist at a protest in the West Bank town of Beita last week.
“I am outraged and deeply saddened by the death of Aysenur Eygi,” Biden said in the statement. “Israel has acknowledged its responsibility for Aysenur’s death, and a preliminary investigation has indicated that it was the result of a tragic error resulting from an unnecessary escalation.”
“The US government has had full access to Israel’s preliminary investigation, and expects continued access as the investigation continues, so that we can have confidence in the result,” he continued. “There must be full accountability. And Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again.”
In response, Hamid Ali, Eygi’s partner, said that Biden had not directly contacted the family and renewed calls for an independent inquiry in the case. “The White House has not spoken with us,” he said in the statement. “For four days, we have waited for President Biden to pick up the phone and do the right thing: to call us, offer his condolences and let us know that he is ordering an independent investigation of the killing of Ayşenur.”
The Israel Defense Forces said that the results of an initial inquiry showed that it was “highly likely that [Eygi] was hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire which was not aimed at her, but aimed at the key instigator of the riot”.
In response, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had said that he would speak with senior Israeli officials and demand that the Israeli security forces “make some fundamental changes to the way they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement”.
Biden did not offer further specific information on what changes the US would demand from Israeli security forces. Previous deaths of American citizens in the region, including the shooting death of the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Gaza in 2022, have also gone unprosecuted.
Kamala Harris also called the shooting that led to Eygi’s death “unacceptable and raises legitimate questions about the conduct of IDF personnel in the West Bank. Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again.”
Biden, in brief comments to the press, suggested that Eygi had been killed by a bullet that had ricocheted off the ground as Israeli forces fired at protesters who the IDF claimed had turned violent.
But family members of Eygi, citing media reports and other research, have said they do not believe the shooting was an accident.
“President Biden is still calling her killing an accident based only on the Israeli military’s story,” Eygi’s family said in a statement after Biden and Harris’ remarks. “This is not only insensitive and false, it is complicity in the Israeli military’s agenda to take Palestinian land and whitewash the killing of an American.
“Let us be clear: an American citizen was killed by a foreign military in a targeted attack. The appropriate action is for President Biden and Vice-President Harris to speak with the family directly, and order an independent, transparent investigation into the killing of Ayşenur, a volunteer for peace.”
