US activist said shot dead by IDF at W. Bank protest; girl killed as settlers storm village
Army probing circumstances of 26-year-old’s death near Nablus; 13-year-old reportedly shot inside her room as extremist Israelis enter town, clash with locals
An American woman was shot and killed by IDF troops during a protest near Nablus in the northern West Bank on Friday, two doctors told The Associated Press.
Separately, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl was reported shot dead when extremist settlers stormed a village near Nablus and clashed with villagers.
In the first case, witnesses and Palestinian media reported that the woman was shot by Israeli troops while attending a pro-Palestinian demonstration against settlement expansion in the Palestinian town of Beita, southeast of Nablus.
Dr. Ward Basalat said the 26-year-old woman was shot in the head and died after arriving at a hospital. Dr. Fouad Naffa, the head of the hospital, also confirmed the death of an American citizen.
The slain woman was named as Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, an American originally from Turkey. She was reportedly an activist with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
The Israeli military said it was investigating the matter.
Protests happen regularly and have grown violent in the past. A month ago, American citizen Amado Sison was shot in the leg by Israeli forces, he said, as he tried to flee tear gas and live fire.
According to the IDF, during operations near the town of Beita close to Nablus, troops opened fire at a “main instigator” who was hurling stones at the forces and had “posed a threat.”
“A claim that a foreign citizen was killed by gunfire in the area is being investigated. The details of the incident and the circumstances of her being hit are under investigation,” the IDF added.
“We deplore this tragic loss,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on a visit to the Dominican Republic, offering his “deepest condolences” to the family of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a US-Turkish dual national.
Asked if the United States would take action against Israel, Blinken said: “First things first — let’s find out exactly what happened and we will draw the necessary conclusions and consequences from that.
“When we have more info, we will share it, make it available and, as necessary, we’ll act on it,” he said. “I have no higher priority than the safety and protection of American citizens wherever they are.”
Turkey also condemned the “murder committed by the Netanyahu government.”
“Israel is trying to intimidate all those who come to the aid of the Palestinian people and who fight peacefully against the genocide. This policy of violence will not work,” a statement from the Foreign Ministry said, accusing Israel of “crimes against humanity.”
Meanwhile, Palestinian media reported that a 13-year-old was killed after being shot by Israeli forces near Nablus amid a clash between extremist settlers and local villagers.
She was evacuated in serious condition from the village of Qaryut to a hospital in Nablus, according to the PA official news agency Wafa, where doctors pronounced her death.
According to the report, Bana Amjad Bakr was shot while in her room at her home in Qaryut.
The Yesh Din rights group said the incident began when dozens of settlers, allegedly guarded by Israeli soldiers, stormed the West Bank village and lit fires in the area. The shots that killed Bakr were fired during clashes that ensued between the settlers and Palestinian villagers.
Earlier Friday, Kan reported that a car was set alight overnight and the word “revenge” graffitied in Hebrew along with a Star of David in the West Bank village of Khirbet Abu Falah, near Ramallah.
Arrests of perpetrators in such so-called “price tag attacks” on Palestinians by settlers are exceedingly rare and rights groups lament that convictions are even more unusual, with the majority of charges in such cases being dropped.
In Jenin, Palestinian media reported earlier that Israeli troops had withdrawn from the West Bank city following a 10-day operation. The Palestinian Authority’s official Wafa news agency said the troops pulled out of the city at dawn. However, the army said that “troops are continuing with the operation until its objectives are achieved.”
The IDF has been carrying out a major operation in the northern West Bank since August 28. The operation — internally dubbed “Summer Camps” by the army — began with simultaneous raids on Jenin, Tulkarem and the Far’a camp near Tubas, with the goal of dismantling Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror networks in the three areas of the northern West Bank.
So far, according to the IDF, more than 36 gunmen have been killed in the operation, among them the head of Hamas in Jenin and the head of Islamic Jihad in the Tulkarem area. Another 46 wanted Palestinians have been detained.
Violence in the West Bank has surged in the past year, following the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were massacred and 251 were taken hostage.
Since that date, Israeli troops have arrested some 5,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,000 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 670 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 29 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another six members of the security forces have been killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.
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