Turkey and Palestinian authorities have expressed outrage over the death of a 26-year-old activist during a protest in Beita, near Nablus, on Friday, September 6.
A “murder” : This is how Turkey described on Friday the events that led to the death in the West Bank of a pro-Palestinian activist American-Turkish, claiming that she had been killed by the “Israeli occupation soldiers”.
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, she was killed by an Israeli soldier’s gunfire near Nablus, in Beita, during a demonstration against Israeli settlements. In a statement, the IDF acknowledged having opened fire, and explained that it had defended itself against an attack by assailants.
The young woman was buried as a martyr in western Turkey on Saturday. The incident has been widely condemned, including by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as the United States, Egypt and Qatar push for a ceasefire and the release of remaining hostages held by Hamas.
These talks have been interrupted several times, with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of making new unacceptable demands.
During his meeting with the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned the ongoing war and said that what happened in the Balkans in the 1990s was now happening in Gaza.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and the UN has repeatedly said that Israeli colonization of the Palestinian territory is illegal under international law. Violence has flared up in the region since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip in October 2023, following deadly attacks by Hamas in Israel. Since then, at least 661 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to Palestinian authorities, and 23 Israelis have also been killed, including soldiers, according to official Israeli data.
