Opher's office said in a statement on Tuesday that the purpose of the visit, organised by the Council for Arab-British Understanding, was to enable members of parliament to witness the vital medical and humanitarian work of a range of organisations including Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) in the occupied West Bank. It added: It is deeply regrettable that Israeli authorities prevented them from seeing first-hand the grave challenges facing medical facilities in the region and from hearing the British government's assessment of the situation on the ground.
Ozden Bennett's first reaction after learning of her younger sister's killing was disbelief. Aysenur Ezgi Eygi had traveled to the occupied West Bank just three days earlier to volunteer with Palestinian communities facing violence at the hands of Israeli soldiers and settlers. But the shock and grief quickly gave way to dread that nothing would come of it, that she would have just died under that olive tree and that was it, Bennett said this week, before the anniversary of Eygi's death.