Israeli soldiers killed an American woman during an anti-settlement protest in the West Bank on Friday, a witness told the Associated Press, in a shooting that raised calls from Washington for an investigation.
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U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed the death of the 26-year-old woman born in Turkey as Aysenur Ezgi Eygi. The White House said it was “deeply disturbed” by the killing.
Dr. Ward Basalat told the Associated Press that the woman was shot in the head and died after arriving at the hospital.
Eygi was also a Turkish citizen, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli said, adding that the country would exert “all effort to ensure that those who killed our citizen is brought to justice.”
The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an “instigator of violent activity” in the area of the protest.
White House national security spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement: “We are deeply disturbed by the tragic death of an American citizen, Aysrnur Egzi Eygi, today in the West Bank and our hearts go out to her family and loved ones. We have reached out to the Government of Israel to ask for more information and request an investigation into the incident.”
The woman was believed to have been shot while attending the protest against settlement expansion in the Palestinian town of Beita, north of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The protests happen regularly and have grown violent in the past. A month ago, American citizen Amado Sison was shot in the leg by Israeli forces, he said, as he tried to flee tear gas and live fire.
Elsewhere in the territory, Israeli forces appeared to have withdrawn from three refugee camps after a more-than-weeklong military operation that left dozens dead and a trail of destruction. Israel says the large-scale raids in the territory were aimed at dismantling militant groups and preventing attacks. Palestinians fear a widening of the war in Gaza.
The United Nations says the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “beyond catastrophic,” with more than 1 million Palestinians not receiving any food rations in August and a 35% drop in people getting daily cooked meals. Health workers resumed vaccinating children against polio in the southern Gaza Strip early Friday for the second phase of a massive immunization campaign.
The war began after Hamas launched a wide-scale attack into Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Israel’s campaign in response has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and fighters in its toll.