Holocaust survivor and his family decry Israeli killing of Turkish-American activist

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Stephen Kapos, a Holocaust survivor, and his family have joined many to speak up against the killing of Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi during a protest in the occupied West Bank.

Eygi was shot by Israeli forces on Friday while participating in a demonstration against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita.

An autopsy report confirmed that she was killed by an Israeli sniper’s bullet to the head, Nablus Governor Ghassan Daghlas said Saturday.

Eygi, 26, had been actively involved in solidarity movements supporting Palestinian rights. Her death has sparked outrage and calls for accountability from both local and international communities.

In an interview with Anadolu, Kapos, an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor from Budapest, Hungary termed the killing "outrageous."

"I think it's an obvious outrage because she was, I think, deliberately targeted," he said during a march for Palestine in London over the weekend.

Kapos also called out the double standards in coverage of Israeli violence against Palestinians, saying the killing should not be paid more attention to than the killing of thousands of Palestinians since Oct. 7 last year.

"It points out the double standards of thousands of others. Palestinians are also being assassinated, murdered and nobody takes an equal amount of interest at all."

He added that it also shows "the difference in human value given to a Western connected person or a Palestinian, and it should be equal, equal attention, equal treatment."

Kapos was accompanied by his family members during the march, including his son Peter and daughter Andrea under a banner that said: "Holocaust survivor descendants against Gaza genocide."

Peter called Israel’s actions "absolutely criminal."

"It's obviously part of the way that Israel is prosecuting this war that it assassinates civilians, and it does it in a very targeted way, but it also does it indiscriminately," he noted.

Calling what is happening in Gaza "genocide," he said that Eygi's killing is a "feature of the genocide."

"Every death is inexcusable, and every death is an absolute tragedy, and what's happening at the moment is absolutely criminal," he added.

Andrea labeled the killing of the activist "a symptom of the genocide."

"There are so many, many, many people being killed, and it just needs to stop," she said.

"I think any death, any killing, whether it's specifically targeted or whether people have been caught in the crossfire, it just needs to stop."

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.

The Israeli onslaught has killed more than 40,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured nearly 94,700, according to local health authorities.

The military campaign has also turned much of the enclave of 2.3 million people into ruins, leaving most civilians homeless and at risk of famine.