U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday demanded an overhaul of Israeli military conduct in the occupied West Bank as he decried the fatal shooting of an American protester against settlement expansion, which Israel said was accidental.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, who is also a Turkish national, was shot dead last Friday at a protest march in Beita, a village near Nablus where Palestinians have been repeatedly attacked by far-right Jewish settlers.
Israel’s military said on Tuesday that its initial inquiry found it was highly likely its troops had fired the shot that killed her but that her death was unintentional, and it voiced deep regret.
President Joe Biden later told reporters “it ricocheted off the ground” and a U.S. official said that was the conclusion of the Israeli investigation, the results of which were presented to the United States on Tuesday.
Palestinian officials say that Eygi was struck in the head.
Blinken, in his strongest comments to date criticising the security forces of Washington’s closest Middle East ally, described Eygi’s killing as “unprovoked and unjustified”. He said Washington would insist to the Israeli government that it makes changes to how its forces operate in the West Bank.
“No one should be shot and killed for attending a protest. No one should have to put their life at risk just for freely expressing their views,” he told reporters in London.
“In our judgment, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement.
“Now we have the second American citizen killed at the hands of Israeli security forces. It’s not acceptable,” he said.
An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment on Blinken’s remarks.
The Israeli military earlier said an investigation by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division was under way and its findings would be submitted for higher-level review once completed.
“We’re going to be watching that very, very closely,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters, saying a criminal probe was an unusual step by Israel’s military.
“We’re going to want to see where it goes now in terms of the criminal investigation and what they find, and if and how anyone is held accountable,” Kirby added.
Eygi’s family called the preliminary inquiry “wholly inadequate” and urged U.S. President Joe Biden to demand an independent investigation.
Preliminary inquiry
In a statement, the Israeli military said its commanders had conducted an initial investigation into the incident and found that the gunfire was not aimed at her but another individual it called “the key instigator of the riot.”
“The incident took place during a violent riot in which dozens of Palestinian suspects burned tyres and hurled rocks towards security forces at the Beita Junction,” it said.
Israel has sent a request to Palestinian authorities to carry out an autopsy, it said.
“We are deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional,” Eygi’s family said in a statement.
A surge in violent settler assaults on Palestinians in the West Bank has stirred anger among Western allies of Israel, including the United States, which has imposed sanctions on some Israelis involved in the hardline settler movement. Tensions have been heightened amid Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
Palestinians have held weekly protests in Beita since 2020 over the expansion of nearby Evyatar, a settler outpost. Ultra-nationalist members of Israel’s ruling coalition have acted to legalise previously unauthorised outposts like Evyatar, a move Washington says threatens the stability of the West Bank and undercuts efforts toward a two-state solution to the conflict.
Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, an area Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state.
Israel has built a thickening array of settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes that assertion, citing historical and biblical ties to the territory.
