Blinken says killing of American woman in West Bank ‘unprovoked and unjustified’

“No one should be shot and killed for attending a protest”

The Guardian, September 10, 2024

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is in London on a diplomatic visit. He has met with the British foreign secretary, David Lammy. They held a press conference, which you can watch in the video at the top of this blog, early this afternoon.

Blinken told journalists that the killing of an American citizen during a protest last week in the occupied West Bank was “unprovoked and unjustified” and shows that the Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in their rules of engagement.

“No one should be shot and killed for attending a protest,” Blinken told the news conference, in what were some of his harshest comments to date against the Israeli military.

“In our judgment, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement,” he said.

Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old volunteer with the anti-occupation International Solidarity Movement, died in hospital on Friday after being shot in the head in the town of Beita near Nablus during a protest against settler expansion in the occupied West Bank. She was reportedly killed by Israeli forces.