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Funeral held for Turkish-American activist Aysenur Eygi as Israeli airstrikes kill 14 in Gaza
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a Turkish-American activist whom Israel admits was likely killed by one of its soldiers in the West Bank a week ago, was laid to rest on Saturday morning.
Eygi, a 26-year-old from Seattle who held U.S. and Turkish citizenships, was buried in her hometown in the town of Didim on the Aegean Sea.
Eygi’s body had been earlier brought from a hospital to her family home and Didim’s Central Mosque. Thousands of people bid her farewell in the town’s streets, which were lined with Turkish flags.
The Turkish Justice Ministry announced an investigation into Eygi’s death earlier this week.
“We are not going to leave our daughter’s blood on the ground and we demand responsibility and accountability for this murder,” Numan Kurtulus, the speaker of Turkey’s parliament, told mourners on Saturday.
Eygi’s father said Thursday that the family wants a similar investigation from the U.S. government, and said the U.S. would typically investigate the killing of one of its citizens like “an eagle on its emblem,” but alleged that “there is an attempt to evade the issue” when Israel is involved.
Eygi was a member of the International Solidarity Movement, a group that has organized protests against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the treatment of Palestinians since before the current war in Gaza began. She was attending a scheduled protest alongside other activists and Palestinians in the West Bank on Sept. 6. Demonstrators clashed with Israeli forces, but eyewitnesses said Eygi was shot after the protest. She was standing alone under an olive tree when she was shot once in the head, CBS News previously reported.
The Israel Defense Forces said an initial investigation showed it was “highly likely” that Eygi was “hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire which was not aimed at her, but aimed at the key instigator” of what it called a riot.
Her death was condemned by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken as the United States, Egypt and Qatar push for a cease-fire and the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. Talks have repeatedly broken down as Israel and Hamas accuse each other of making new and unacceptable demands.
Saturday was rocked by violence in Gaza, as Israeli airstrikes hit central and southern parts of the territory overnight. Strikes in Gaza City hit one home housing 11 people, including three women and four children, while another strike hit a tent in Khan Younis. Earlier strikes this week struck a tent camp and a United Nations school sheltering displaced people.
The war began when Hamas-led fighters killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. They abducted another 250 people and are still holding around 100 hostages after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire in November. Around a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead.
The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times, and plunged the territory into a severe humanitarian crisis. Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count, but says women and children make up just over half of the dead. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants in the war.
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Associate of Frenchman on trial for mass rape of wife Gisele Pelicot admits copycat abuse of his own wife
A man who says he learned to drug and rape his own wife from Frenchman Dominque Pelicot, who’s admitted to drugging and raping his own former partner for almost a decade, and recruiting scores of strangers to assault her as well, said Wednesday that he deserved to be harshly punished.
“I’m in jail and I deserve it,” the 63-year-old told the court in Avignon where the mass rape trial of Pelicot has been unfolding to the horror of the French and international public.
“What I did is appalling. I’m a criminal and a rapist,” said Jean-Pierre Marechal, a tall man with a buzzcut who claimed he was supplied with tranquillisers by Pelicot.
Pelicot, 71, has admitted slipping his then wife Gisele sedatives to render her unconscious so that he and dozens of strangers could rape her.
Gisele Pelicot also testified in the Avignon court Wednesday, saying she felt humiliated by defense lawyers suggesting she could have been complicit in the ordeal.
“Since I have set foot in this courtroom I have felt humiliated,” she said during the trial of her former husband, who stands accused along with 50 other men of raping his wife between 2011 and 2020.
“I’m being called an alcoholic, and someone who gets intoxicated to the point of becoming Mr. Pelicot’s accomplice,” she bristled.
Marechal is the only one involved in the case who is not accused of abusing Gisele Pelicot. Instead, Marechal is accused of raping or attempting to rape his 54-year-old wife Cilia 12 times, with Pelicot accused of taking part in 10 of those assaults after the two men met online.
“What I did is horrible and I want a tough punishment,” said Marechal.
“I regret my actions,” he told the courtroom. “If I had not met Mr. Pelicot, I would have never committed this act. He was reassuring, like a cousin.”
According to prosecutors, after the two men met on a website called Coco, Pelicot started sharing images of his abuse of his wife by the men he’d enlisted, explaining to Marechal how he drugged her. Marechal said he initially refused Pelicot’s invitation to rape his wife, but later changed his mind.
Prosecutors have said Pelicot appears in at least three recordings of 12 assaults on Marechal’s wife Cilia.
Pelicot said he stopped contacting Marechal after Cilia woke up while he was in the room.
Marechal says he had a “happy life” with his wife
Marechal told the court he had been abused by his father as a child.
“My childhood was all shame, alcohol, sex and a lot of silence,” he said. “We experienced terrible things from my father, sexual abuse.”
“My mother tried to protect us but she drank,” he added.
Marechal said he had a “happy life” with his wife after meeting her as a young man. She too told the court last week that it was a happy marriage.
“I love my wife,” he said.
He lived about 30 miles from the Pelicot home in the southern town of Mazan, where the main defendant is accused of abusing his own wife in her bed.
Gisele Pelicot has been lauded globally for waiving her right to anonymity under French law and insisting the trial be open to the public, hoping to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.
contributed to this report.
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Brian Tyree Henry on voicing young Megatron, his love for villain roles
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Black women 40% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women, study finds
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