PLO says Israel’s killing of Turkish-American activist attempt to intimidate supporters

By Aysar Alais

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) condemned on Saturday Israel’s killing of Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi as an attempt to intimidate and suppress supporters of Palestinian causes.

In a statement, the PLO’s department of expatriates said the killing of Eygi highlights the brutality and violence of the Israeli occupation against innocent civilians and those who oppose its actions.

It emphasized that the killing was aimed at intimidating and suppressing solidarity with Palestine.

The PLO held Tel Aviv fully responsible for Eygi’s death, and called for substantial international pressure on Israel to halt its violations of international laws and agreements.

The organization also demanded adherence to international resolutions and an end to the occupation.

Eygi was shot dead by Israeli forces on Friday while participating in a protest against settlement expansion in the town of Beita, near Nablus in the northern West Bank.

According to Fouad Nafia, the director of Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, Eygi was admitted with a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead despite resuscitation efforts.

Following the incident, Hussein al-Sheikh, Secretary-General of the PLO, called for the Israeli military to be tried in international courts, describing the killing as "another crime added to the daily atrocities committed by the occupation forces."

The international community, including Türkiye, the US and UN, has condemned the killing of Eygi.

Tension has been running high across the occupied West Bank as Israel has pressed ahead with its brutal onslaught on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 40,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7 last year.

Israeli forces on Friday withdrew from the city of Jenin following a siege that lasted 10 days, leaving behind a trail of devastation.

In a landmark opinion in July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful, and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi