Mourners gather at funeral for American-Turkish activist killed by Israeli gunfire as grieving dad urges US probe

Mourners gathered in southwest Turkey Saturday for the funeral of the American-Turkish activist who was killed by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank last week.

The body of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, arrived in Turkey on Friday, CNN reported. 

Her coffin was draped in a Turkish flag and carried by soldiers – a ceremony that is usually reserved for those killed in combat, the outlet said.

Eygi’s coffin was placed outside the Didim Central Mosque at the start of the funeral processions on Saturday.

Eygi was born in Turkey, but was brought to the US as an infant and grew up in Seattle.

The University of Washington graduate was fatally shot by Israeli forces Sept. 6, while participating in a weekly protest against Israeli settlement expansion near the Palestinian village of Beita in the West Bank.

Eygi was in the territory as part of her volunteer work with the International Solidarity Movement.

The activist’s death sparked immediate international backlash, with President Biden calling the killing “totally unacceptable” and demanding “full accountability” from Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces has repeatedly hedged its explanations about the moments leading up to Eygi’s death.

Initially, the IDF said it was “highly likely” that Eygi was “hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire.”

Following a preliminary inquiry, the IDF insisted that the shot was not aimed at Eygi, but at a “key instigator” of a supposedly “violent riot” at the Beita Junction.

The alleged instigator was not named publicly.

Eygi’s family has repeatedly called for an independent probe into her killing.

“I have been living in the U.S. for 25 years, and I know how seriously the U.S. looks out for the safety of its citizens abroad,” her father, Mehmet Suat Eygi, told The New York Times from the family’s home in Didim Saturday.

“I know that when something happens, the U.S. will attack like the eagle on its seal,” he said, adding, “But when Israel is in question, it transforms into a dove.”

The grieving dad added that he had not received a single condolence call from a US official.

Turkey performed its own autopsy on Eygi’s body, The New York Times reported.

On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the country would pursue her case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

“The Turkish government is following the case,” Eygi’s father said Saturday. “I hope the U.S. government will do the same. An independent investigation is our biggest wish, but we don’t know how it can be done.”