US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was “unprovoked and unjustified.”
The Israeli military says it is highly likely that its soldiers fired the shot that killed a Turkish-American woman during a protest in the occupied West Bank last week, but says her death was unintentional and expresses deep regret.
Turkish and Palestinian officials said Friday that Israeli soldiers shot Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, who was taking part in a demonstration against settlement expansion during a regular protest march by activists in Beita, a village near Nablus.
In a statement released Tuesday, the Israeli military said it had conducted an investigation into the incident.
“The investigation revealed that it is very likely that she was hit indirectly and unintentionally by (Israeli military) fire that was not directed at her, but at the main instigator of the riot,” the army said.
“The incident took place during a violent riot in which dozens of Palestinian suspects burned tires and threw stones at security forces at the Beita junction.”
The Israeli army “expresses its deepest regrets for the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi,” it added, specifying that the army had also “sent a request to carry out an autopsy.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had earlier said that Israeli forces killed Eygi with a “shot to the head”.
Eygi was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian organization that on Saturday dismissed allegations that ISM activists threw stones at Israeli forces as “false” and said the protest was peaceful.
Eygi’s assassination comes amid rising violence in the West Bank since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October, with an increase in Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian fighters on Israelis, attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and a harsher military crackdown on Palestinian protests.
More than 690 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials.
The Palestinian Authority held a funeral procession for Eygi in the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday. Turkish authorities also said they were working to repatriate his body to Turkey for burial in the Aegean coastal city of Didim, in accordance with his family’s wishes.
The United States considers the killing to be “unjustified”
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Eygi’s killing was “unprovoked and unjustified” and showed that Israeli security forces needed to make fundamental changes to their rules of engagement.
“No one should be shot while participating in a protest. In our view, Israeli security forces must make fundamental changes to the way they operate in the West Bank,” he said.
“This is the second American citizen to be killed by Israeli security forces. This is unacceptable. This must change.”
Deaths of U.S. citizens in the West Bank have attracted international attention in the past, such as the fatal shooting of prominent Palestinian-American journalist, Tel Aviv Tribune correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, in 2022 in the Jenin refugee camp.
Human rights groups say Israel rarely holds soldiers accountable for the killing of Palestinians and that military investigations often reflect a pattern of impunity.
The Israeli military, however, has repeatedly said it thoroughly investigates allegations of civilian killings and holds its forces accountable.
But even in the most shocking cases – and those caught on camera – soldiers often receive relatively light sentences, as in the case of Israeli soldier Elor Azaria in 2017.
The military doctor was convicted of manslaughter and served nine months in prison after killing a wounded and incapacitated Palestinian in the West Bank city of Hebron. The man, Abed al-Fattah al-Sharif, was shot dead after the Israeli military said he stabbed an Israeli soldier.
The case has deeply divided Israelis, with the military saying Azaria had clearly violated its code of ethics, while many Israelis – particularly on the nationalist right – have defended his actions and accused the army’s top brass of questioning a soldier operating in dangerous conditions.
