The White House on Friday requested that Israel investigate the death of a 26-year-old American woman, Aysenur Eygi, in the occupied West Bank.
Earlier, a protester told The Associated Press that Israeli forces had shot an American woman at an anti-settlement demonstration in the West Bank. Two doctors said she was shot in the head, the AP reported.
"We are deeply disturbed by the tragic death of an American citizen, Aysenur Egzi Eygi, today in the West Bank and our hearts go out to her family and loved ones," White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement. "We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask for more information and request an investigation into the incident."
Eygi was a dual national, also carrying Turkish citizenship. In a statement, Türkiye President Recep Erdogan said he condemned Israel's "barbaric intervention against a civilian protest against the occupation in the West Bank."
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) confirmed that Eygi was taking part in their weekly demonstration in the town of Beita, north of Ramallah, against the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In a statement, the organization said the protest "primarily involved men and children praying" and was met with force by the IDF who fired tear gas before using live ammunition.
The ISM said Eygi was shot in the head and died shortly after she was taken to a hospital in Nablus. Eygi is the 18th demonstrator to be killed in Beita since 2020, and the only non-Palestinian, according to the ISM.
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At least two other American citizens have been killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7. Mohammad Ahmed Mohammad Khdour, 17, was killed by IDF troops in February, and Tawfic Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, 17, was killed by Israeli fire in January.
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The Israel Defense Forces said it had been in the area next to Beita and "responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them."
It was looking into reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of shots fired in the area, the IDF added.
"The details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was hit are under review," it said in a statement.
Israeli settlements have expanded rapidly over the past several years, with Israeli settler violence against Palestinians on the rise. In April, Human Rights Watch issued a report alleging that armed settlers forcibly and violently drove out Palestinian residents from at least five West Bank settlements “with the active participation of army units.”
Israeli forces are appearing to withdraw from the city of Jenin and other parts of the West Bank, where the IDF has been carrying out a deadly dayslong operation that has left ruin to neighborhoods across the city and beyond.
In Jenin, the IDF said at least 14 people they identified as terrorists had been killed, including Wassem Hazem, the head of Hamas’ presence in Jenin who they said had directed shooting and explosive attacks in the area.
More than 30 people were also taken into IDF custody as suspects, though the military did not expand on what they were suspected of.
Palestinian health officials had said Thursday that at least 39 people had been killed in the West Bank since Israel launched what it described as an operation to dismantle “terrorist cells” in the territory on Aug. 28.
Many of those killed have been claimed as members of militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, although the Palestinian health ministry has said at least eight children were also among those killed at the time.
“For over a week, Israeli forces have been using lethal, war-like tactics across the northern West Bank, deepening people’s humanitarian needs and raising concerns over excessive use of force,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a humanitarian update published Wednesday.
OCHA said that from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2, Israeli forces had killed 30 Palestinians in the territory, including seven children, “marking the highest weekly death toll since November 2023.”
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