A funeral has been held for a US-Turkish activist who was killed in the West Bank

Hundreds of people attended the funeral of activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a US-Turkish citizen who was shot dead in the West Bank last week.

An honor guard carried Eygi’s coffin during the funeral, which was held in his hometown of Didim, western Turkey.

Israel said there is a high probability that the 26-year-old activist was killed by soldiers during a protest in the West Bank on September 6. Turkey says it was an intentional killing.

Eygi’s death caused tension between the two countries, and many Turkish government officials, including Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz, attended the funeral.

Mourners carrying Palestinian and Turkish flags were seen lining the outside of Didim’s Central Mosque as the procession continued.

Other mourners included Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus and the leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Özgür Özel.

“The blood of Ayşenur Eygi is as holy as all the Palestinian martyrs, and we will follow it to the end,” Kurtulmus told reporters, according to Reuters news agency.

“As a Turkish nation, we are fully committed. As a state, we are fully committed.”

Prayers were offered for Eygi in cities across Turkey, including Istanbul and the capital Ankara.

Her mother, Rabia Birden, said on Friday: “The only thing I ask of our province is to seek justice for my daughter,” according to Anadolu news agency.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had previously said “it is very possible” Eygi was “indirectly and unintentionally hit” by IDF fire, “which was not aimed at him, but was directed at the main initiator of the conflict.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the killings were “unprovoked and unjustified”.

“No one should be shot and killed for attending a protest, no one should risk their life just for freely expressing their views,” Blinken told reporters shortly after the IDF issued its statement.

Relations between Turkey and Israel have deteriorated since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.

garlic stopped all imports and exports from Israel in May and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “the butcher of Gaza”.

Responding to the trade freeze, Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz accused Mr Erdogan of acting like a “dictator”.