Palestinian activists assistance a banner and portraits of slain Turkish-American International Solidarity Movement activistic Aysenur Ezgi Eygi during a ceremonial procession successful Nablus successful the occupied West Bank.
Nasser Ishtayeh | Lightrocket | Getty Images
The Israeli military said Tuesday that it was "highly likely" its forces killed an American woman during a protest in the occupied West Bank past week. The United States said the shooting was "unprovoked and unjustified" and called for "fundamental changes" to Israel's conduct, a uncommon nonstop rebuke of its adjacent ally.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, a caller postgraduate of the University of Washington successful Seattle, was changeable and killed Friday during a objection against the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, the International Solidarity Movement said astatine the time.
Washington had urged Israel to analyse the circumstances astir Eygi's decease and to guarantee the findings were "thorough and transparent." The incidental unfolded arsenic Israeli forces carried retired a deadly dayslong subject operation in different parts of the West Bank that it said targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants.
The Israel Defense Forces said successful a little connection published Tuesday that an archetypal enquiry recovered it was "highly likely" that Eygi was "hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire, which was not aimed astatine her, but aimed astatine the cardinal instigator" of the protest."
The IDF had previously said it had responded with occurrence toward a "main instigator" who was alleged to person been throwing rocks.
The IDF described the objection arsenic a "violent riot successful which dozens of Palestinian suspects burned tires and hurled rocks toward information forces astatine the Beita Junction," successful its connection Tuesday.
Eygi's household said she was peacefully demonstrating erstwhile she was killed and that video showed the slug appeared to travel from an Israeli subject shooter.
They had separately called for an autarkic U.S.-ordered probe and said an Israeli probe would not beryllium enough.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the IDF enquiry "seems to amusement what eyewitnesses person said and made wide that her sidesplitting was some unprovoked and unjustified."
He added that "in our judgment, Israeli information forces request to marque immoderate cardinal changes successful the mode that they run successful the West Bank" and said Washington would beryllium "making that wide to the senior-most members of the Israeli government."
It was not wide arsenic of Tuesday whether determination were immoderate plans for a U.S.-led investigation.
The IDF added that "following the incident, an probe was launched by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division (MPCID). The findings volition beryllium submitted for reappraisal by the Military Advocate General's Corps upon its conclusion."
Israel has present submitted a petition to transportation retired an autopsy connected Eygi's body, the IDF said, adding that it "expresses its deepest regret" implicit Eygi's death.
It comes arsenic Israel faces mounting scrutiny implicit a emergence successful deadly settler unit successful the West Bank, with the International Court of Justice issuing an opinion in July that said the practices and policies deployed by Israel successful its concern of Palestinian territories were successful breach of planetary law.
The tribunal said Israel should cease each caller colony activities and evacuate settlers from Palestinian territories.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the ICJ's ruling arsenic "false," saying that "the Jewish radical are not conquerors successful their ain land," referring to Jerusalem and the West Bank.
A Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into the 2022 sidesplitting of different American successful the West Bank, seasoned Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, remains ongoing.
Israel had initially blamed Palestinian gunmen for the deadly shooting, but aboriginal admitted it was astir apt an Israeli worker that apt accidentally changeable the writer portion she was covering Israeli raids successful the territory.
Israel refused to cooperate with the FBI's probe and to day nary 1 successful the Israeli subject has been prosecuted.
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