Americans shot dead at West Bank demonstration when Israeli forces opened fire

A Turkish-American woman was shot dead on Friday while protesting against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank town of Beita. The army admitted opening fire.

Turkey identified the woman as Aysenur Ezgi Eygi and condemned her death, while the United States called it a “tragic” event without immediately claiming responsibility.

The incident occurred as Israeli forces withdrew from a 10-day deadly assault on the West Bank city of Jenin, another flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while the Gaza war continues.

The attack was part of a wider Israeli military operation and sparked international criticism. Germany, Israel's ally, warned against an escalation of military action in the West Bank.

Eygi, in his mid-20s, was in Beita as part of a weekly protest against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law and are home to around 490,000 people.

The Israeli army said it was investigating the incident.

She arrived at Rafidia Hospital in Nablus “with a gunshot wound to the head” and was later pronounced dead, said hospital director Fouad Nafaa.

Turkey said she was killed by “Israeli occupation soldiers.” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the Israeli action as “barbaric.”

“We regret this tragic loss,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, promising to act “as necessary.”

Eygi was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian organization, and was in Beita for a weekly demonstration against Israeli settlements, said Neta Golan, the group's co-founder.

– 'Series of Crimes' –

Beita Mayor Mahmud Barham said the incident occurred after a weekly Friday prayer in protest against an Israeli settlement outpost in the area.

He was told that an Israeli soldier “fired two shots at the people still on the (demonstration) site, including the foreign activist, and one of the bullets hit her in the head.”

An ISM activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the shot that killed Eygi was “a killing shot” and reported that he “saw blood coming out of her head.”

The Israeli army said its forces “responded with fire to a main instigator of the violence who threw stones at the forces and posed a threat to them.”

The army is “investigating reports that a foreign national was killed by gunfire,” it said.

Since Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 662 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

According to Israeli authorities, at least 23 Israelis, including members of the security forces, were killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period.

In its response to Friday's incident, Hamas strongly condemned “the crime committed by the Zionist occupation army” that led to Eygi's death.

Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said on X that he expressed his condolences to Eygi's family.

“This is another crime in the series of crimes that the occupying forces commit on a daily basis and for which the perpetrators must be held accountable before international courts,” he said.

– Withdrawal from Jenin –

There was no official confirmation of the withdrawal from Jenin, but AFP journalists reported that residents were returning home.

The withdrawal came at a time when Israel and its main ally, the United States, are locked in a standoff over negotiations for a ceasefire in the Gaza war, which has now lasted for almost twelve months.

On Thursday, Blinken called on both Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement, saying, “I think from what I've seen, there's 90 percent agreement.”

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied this, telling Fox News: “It's not close.”

Washington and co-mediators Qatar and Egypt are pushing for a proposal to bridge the differences between the two sides.

Netanyahu insists on a military presence on the border between Gaza and Egypt along the so-called Philadelphia Corridor.

Hamas is demanding a complete withdrawal by Israel and says it agreed to a proposal by US President Joe Biden months ago.

During her visit to Israel on Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that “a purely military approach is no solution to the situation in the Gaza Strip” after the recovery of six dead hostages was announced at the weekend.

Baerbock warned against demands by right-wing Israeli cabinet members that the military should pursue a similar approach in the West Bank as in the Gaza Strip.

“When members of the Israeli government themselves demand the same treatment in the West Bank as in the Gaza Strip, then that is precisely what poses an acute threat to Israel’s security,” she said.

According to official Israeli figures, 1,205 people were killed in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, most of them civilians, including some hostages killed during the hostage-taking.

Of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Palestinian militants during the attack, 97 remain in Gaza, including 33 who the Israeli military says are dead. Scores more hostages were released during a week-long ceasefire in November.

According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled Gaza area, at least 40,878 people have been killed in Israel's retaliatory offensive so far.

According to the UN Office for Human Rights, most of the dead are women and children.

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