SEATTLE 鈥 For her 26th birthday in July, human rights activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi gathered friends for a bonfire at one of her favorite places, a sandy beach in Seattle where green-and-white ferries cruise across the dark, flat water and osprey fish overhead.
On Wednesday night, hundreds of people traveled to the same beach in grief, love and anger to mourn her. Eygi was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers last Friday in the occupied West Bank, where she had gone to protest and bear witness to Palestinian suffering.
鈥淚 can't imagine what she felt like in her last moments, lying alone under the olive trees,鈥 one of her friends, Kelsie Nabass, told the crowd at the vigil. 鈥淲hat did she think of? And did she know all of us would show up here tonight, for her?鈥
Eygi, who also held Turkish citizenship, was killed while demonstrating against settlements in the West Bank. A witness who was there, Israeli protester Jonathan Pollak, said she posed no threat to Israeli forces and that the shooting came during a moment of calm, following clashes between stone-throwing protesters and Israeli troops firing tear gas and bullets.
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The Israeli military said Eygi was likely shot 鈥渋ndirectly and unintentionally鈥 by its soldiers, drawing criticism from American officials, including President Joe Biden, who said he was 鈥渙utraged and deeply saddened鈥 her killing.
鈥淭here must be full accountability,鈥 Biden said in a statement released Wednesday. 鈥淎nd Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again.鈥
The deaths of American citizens in the West Bank have drawn international attention, such as the fatal shooting of a prominent Palestinian American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, in 2022 in the Jenin refugee camp. The deaths of Palestinians who do not have dual nationality rarely receive the same scrutiny.
Eygi's family has demanded an independent investigation.
On Thursday, Turkey鈥檚 justice minister said his country is investigating Eygi鈥檚 death. Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said the Ankara chief prosecutor鈥檚 office was leading the Turkish probe. Tunc said Turkey would present its findings to a U.N. court overseeing a genocide case against Israel filed by South Africa over the war in Gaza.
鈥淲e will take every judicial step for our martyred daughter, Aysenur,鈥 Tunc said.
As the sun set Wednesday, turning the sky on the horizon a pale orange, friends recalled Eygi as open, engaging, funny and devoted. The crowd spilled beyond a large rectangle of small black, red, green and white Palestinian flags staked in the sand to mark the venue for the vigil.
Many attendees wore traditional checked scarves 鈥 keffiyehs 鈥 in support of the Palestinian cause and carried photographs of Eygi in her graduation cap. They laid roses, sunflowers or carnations at a memorial where battery-operated candles spelled out her name in the sand.
Several described becoming fast friends with her last spring during the occupied 鈥淟iberated Zone鈥 protest against the Israel-Hamas war at the University of Washington. Yoseph Ghazal said she introduced herself as 鈥淏aklava,鈥 a name she sometimes used on messaging apps, reflective of her love of the sweet Mediterranean dessert.
Eygi, who attended Seattle schools and graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in psychology this year, helped negotiate with the administration on behalf of the protesters at the encampment, which was part of a broader campus movement against the Gaza war.
鈥淪he felt so strongly and loved humanity, loved people, loved life so much that she just wanted to help as many as she could,鈥 Juliette Majid, 26, now a doctoral student at North Carolina State University, said in an interview. 鈥淪he had such a drive for justice.鈥
Eygi鈥檚 uncle told a Turkish television station that she had kept her trip a secret from at least some of her family, blocking relatives from her social media posts. Turkish officials have said they are working to repatriate her body for burial, per the family鈥檚 wishes.
Turkey鈥檚 foreign ministry says all measures related to bringing the body of Eygi, 鈥渨ho was 鈥渋ntentionally鈥 killed by Israeli soldiers, to Turkey have been completed and she is expected to arrive on Friday. She will be buried in Turkey. It said the case is being followed by the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv and consulate in Jerusalem.
Sue Han, a 26-year-old law student at the University of Washington, only knew Eygi for a few months after meeting her at the university encampment, but they quickly became close, laughing and blasting music in Eygi's beat-up green Subaru. Eygi would pick Han up at the airport after her travels. Most recently, Eygi greeted her with a plastic baggie full of sliced apples and perfectly ripe strawberries.
Han saw Eygi before she left. Eygi was feeling scared and selfish for leaving her loved ones to go to the West Bank with the activist group International Solidarity Movement; Han said she couldn't imagine anyone more selfless.
Eygi loved to connect people, bringing disparate friends together for coffee to see how they mixed, Han said. The same was true when she would bring people together on the beach, and it was true of the vigil, too.
鈥淚 was looking around at everybody sharing stories about Aysenur, sharing tears and hugs, and this is exactly what she would have wanted,鈥 Han said. 鈥淭hese new relationships all sharing Aysenur as the starting seed 鈥 it's the legacy she would have wanted.鈥
Updated at 10:29 a.m.