DIDIM, Turkiye: The family of a Turkish-American activist killed during a protest in the occupied West Bank is expecting to bury her in Turkiye, her uncle told AFP on Wednesday.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was shot dead last week while demonstrating against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank town of Beita.
The United Nations rights office has accused Israeli forces of having shot Eygi, 26, in the head.
The Israeli army has acknowledged opening fire in the area and said it was looking into the case.
Her family is still waiting for Eygi’s body to arrive and is hoping to bury her in the southwestern town of Didim on Friday.
“It’s sad but it’s also a source of pride for Didim,” Eygi’s uncle Ali Tikkim, 67, told AFP.
“It’s important that a young girl, martyred and sensitive to the world is buried here.”
Eygi was a frequent visitor to the Aegean seaside resort.
“It’s likely that the funeral will take place on Friday but nothing is certain,” said Tikkim, who said he believed her body was still in Israel.
“Israel asked for an autopsy” but Eygi’s parents refused and have “hired a lawyer” to inform Israeli authorities, Tikkim said.
The US embassy in Turkiye’s capital Ankara said it was “following the case” but refused to comment.
Tikkim said that Eygi’s mother, who lives in Seattle on the US west coast, arrived in Didim on Wednesday and that her father was on his way.
The family wanted Eygi to be buried in Didim, where her grandfather lives and her grandmother has been laid to rest, said Tikkim.
“Aysenur was here about two weeks ago. She came here twice a year when she could, to swim and visit her family,” he said.
“Then she told us she was going to Jordan. She went to Palestine for humanitarian reasons.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to ensure “that Aysenur Ezgi’s death does not go unpunished.”
US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for Israel to provide “full accountability” for Eygi’s death.
Turkish-American activist’s family awaits body for burial
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Turkish-American activist’s family awaits body for burial
- Her family is still waiting for Eygi’s body to arrive and is hoping to bury her in the southwestern town of Didim on Friday
UN official: 100,000 Lebanese in shelters after ‘unprecedented’ Israeli warnings
- More than a million people were uprooted in Lebanon during a war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2024, 75%-80% of whom were not in shelters
BEIRUT: About 100,000 people have fled to shelters in Lebanon and the number of displaced is expected to rapidly increase following “unprecedented” Israeli warnings ordering people out of large parts of the country, a senior UN official said on Friday.
With war raging between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the Israeli military on Thursday ordered residents out of Beirut’s southern suburbs, including areas controlled by the Iran-backed group, as well as parts of the eastern Bekaa Valley, after ordering people out of a swathe of south Lebanon on Wednesday.
“What we saw in the last couple of days is, I would say … unprecedented in terms of the scale here in Lebanon of the warnings, the displacement orders, and the reaction, the panic also, that this has all created,” Imran Riza, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon, told Reuters.
“At the moment, there are about 100,000 people that are, as of this morning, in some 477 collective shelters. There are some 57 shelters that still have some space, but basically the capacity is being reached very, very quickly,” Riza said.
Noting the panic and gridlock caused by the Israeli displacement orders, Riza said: “We had people moving all over the place and not knowing where to go to. So yes, I think we’re going to have an increased number quite quickly,” he said.
He noted that more than a million people were uprooted in Lebanon during a war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2024, 75-80 percent of whom were not in shelters. “This time again, the majority will not be in shelters probably,” he said.
