US citizen killed by IDF half an hour after riot broken up - report

US-Turkish citizen Aysenur Eygi was killed by Israeli forces half an hour after the end of the riot that the military cited as causing them to open fire last week, according to a report in The "Washington Post on Thursday.

Citing 13 eyewitnesses from Beita, West Bank, the pro-Palestinian Faz3a group, and the International Solidarity Movement that Eygi came to protest with, the US newspaper said she was more than 700 feet away from the nearest Israeli soldier when she was hit in the head by an Israeli bullet.

Her first demonstration

It was reportedly the first time Eygi participated in a demonstration in the area after arriving earlier in the week. Beita is a hotspot community underneath the newly-legalized settlement of Evyatar near Nablus. The area has frequent protests that regularly descend into rioting. A Palestinian boy was also wounded by gunfire in the incident.

The Washington Post said that the IDF refused to answer why Israeli forces opened fire after the rioters had retreated, saying the investigation was ongoing.

The report said that Eygi and four other volunteers traveled to Beita in a taxi from Ramallah last Friday morning, joining protesters.

At about 12:30 pm, the protesters began prayers and videos showed a peaceful scene, according to the report. As the prayer ended around 13:05, the mood changed, according to videos and eyewitnesses. Older residents left the area. Young people and children took positions on the road descending from the park.

According to the witnesses, it's unclear how the conflict began, but initially it operated in the usual manner of conflicts between soldiers and Palestinian protesters. Some threw stones, some using slings, and others set tires on fire on the mountainside, as seen in photos. According to residents and activists, the IDF forces used tear gas to disperse the crowd, and then almost immediately used live ammunition.

Rapid escalation

Moreover, it was alleged that Eygi, overwhelmed by the rapid escalation, had already started to go "back down the road, behind the boys, behind the other volunteers." Other activists and Palestinians found shelter behind trees, rocks, and terraces, and others put obstacles at various points along the way, including stones and a trash can. In a footage taken at 1:21 pm, at least four IDF soldiers can be seen at the top of a hill. In the following minutes' videos and photos, they are seen taking positions in higher places - including on the roof of Ali Maali, a resident of Beita, and next to a military vehicle.

The first gunfire was not captured in any of the footage examined in the report. Not much was happening then to film, activists and residents said. "Some people say there were two shots, some people say they were three," said one of the protesters, who thought he heard gunshots while he was hiding behind a garbage can. "It was chaos."

The investigation further claimed that at 1:48 pm the protester began filming. "Gunshots!" an unseen woman is heard screaming in the background of one video, as she pleads for an ambulance. Blood was pouring from the left side of Eygi's head, the report relayed, and she did not respond. Her death was later confirmed by a local hospital

IDF opens criminal investigation

The preliminary findings in the IDF investigation into the incident said there was a "high probability" Eygi was killed from "indirect and unintended IDF fire, which was aimed at a main instigator."

The killing was condemned by US officials including President Joe Biden, who called it "outrageous."

The IDF has said it "expresses deepest regret" for her death, and that a criminal probe had been opened.