Galit Altstein and Courtney McBride | Bloomberg News (TNS)
Israel said its military probably killed an American-Turkish citizen last week by accident, prompting the U.S. to call on its close ally to make “fundamental changes” to how it operates in the West Bank.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, raised in Seattle, was shot dead during a protest in the West Bank town of Beita on Friday. Turkey blamed the Israel Defense Forces, which in a social media post at the time said its troops fired toward “a main instigator” of violence.
“It is highly likely,” the Israeli military said on Tuesday, “that she was hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire which was not aimed at her, but aimed at the key instigator of the riot.”
The incident took place during a violent demonstration in which dozens of Palestinians burned tires and threw rocks toward security forces, the IDF said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the investigation seemed to show Eygi’s killing was unjustified and called on the IDF to implement reforms.
“In our judgment, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement,” Blinken told reporters during a trip to London. “There are serious issues that need to be dealt with.”
The killing has further strained Israel’s relations with Turkey, which have deteriorated during the near year-long war in Gaza. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described Israel’s conflict against Hamas as a genocide against Palestinians, a charge Israel denies.
On Monday, Erdogan vowed to seek justice for Eygi by using all necessary legal measures. Turkey may file a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, he said.
Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union, triggered the war in Gaza when its fighters invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostage. Israel’s offensive on Gaza has killed about 41,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
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The West Bank is the bigger of the two Palestinian territories.
Israel regards the West Bank — partly controlled by the Palestinian Authority — as the Jewish biblical heartland and some members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition want it annexed. Many of them have pushed for more Jewish settlements to be built there in recent months.
The West Bank has seen a significant rise in violence since the start of the conflict in Gaza, with more IDF operations happening alongside clashes between Palestinians and settlers.
More than 650 Palestinians have been killed since October during such incidents, according to Palestinian authorities.
Israel launched a large-scale military operation into the West Bank in late August, days before the protest in which Eygi was shot. The IDF said it was rooting out militants. It has said Iran, which backs Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups, is smuggling weapons into the West Bank from Jordan.
—With assistance from Ugur Yilmaz.
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