American woman killed in West Bank while protesting Israeli settlements

A 26-year-old American woman who was reportedly protesting the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank was killed on Friday, prompting an outcry from human rights groups and a White House request for an investigation.

The International Solidarity Movement said the woman, Aysenur Egzi Eygi, was an activist with the group, which supports Palestinian resistance against Israeli oppression.

Eygi, a dual American-Turkish citizen, was in the West Bank town of Beita for a weekly demonstration against the expansion of settlements when the Israeli army “intentionally shot and killed” her, ISM said in a statement. A protester who witnessed the shooting also told The Associated Press that Israeli soldiers killed the woman. Two doctors said she was shot in the head, the AP reported.

The Israel Defense Forces told NBC News that it “responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity” who was throwing rocks. It also said that the details and circumstances of a foreign national’s death as a result of shots fired were “under review.”

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said in a statement that they were “aware” of Eygi’s death and are “urgently gathering more information about the circumstances of her death.”

With much of the attention focused on Gaza since Oct. 7, Israeli forces have “unleashed a brutal wave of violence against Palestinians” in the West Bank, Amnesty International reported in February. In the past week, the IDF has conducted a devastating “security operation” in the West Bank, focusing on the city of Jenin, which houses a large refugee camp. Israel said it killed 14 militants, including the head of Hamas’ presence in Jenin, in the operation. Reuters reported that a total of 21 people were killed in Jenin, including a 16-year-old girl whose father reportedly said she was shot dead by an Israeli sniper while she was looking out the window of her home. The Israeli military said earlier this week that it was looking into reports of her death.

Eygi is the 18th protester killed in Beita — located about 40 miles north of Jerusalem — since 2020, according to ISM. American activist Rachel Corrie, another ISM volunteer, was engaging in a peaceful protest against the demolition of homes in Gaza in 2003 when the Israeli Defense Forces crushed her with a military bulldozer. (The IDF said the soldier operating the bulldozer hadn’t seen her, and that Corrie was responsible for her death for not moving out of the way. Her parents have disputed the military account of her death.) Last month, another U.S. volunteer with ISM was also reportedly shot in the leg by Israeli forces in the West Bank.

The U.S. State Department has repeatedly condemned extremist settler violence in the West Bank, and the Biden administration has ordered multiple rounds of sanctions on extremist individuals and organizations, and settler outposts. Pro-Palestinian activists and allies, as well as the United Nations’ top court, view Israeli settlements in the West Bank as a violation of international law.

Despite finding Israeli settlements “illegitimate,” pro-Palestinian activists say the Biden administration has not sufficiently pressured the Israeli government against supporting the expansion of settlements on the West Bank. Three extremist settlers who were targeted by U.S. sanctions told the AP in June that those sanctions had little impact on them.