U.S. requests investigation after U.S. woman killed in the West Bank
The White House on Friday requested Israel investigate the death of an American woman in the occupied West Bank.
“We are deeply disturbed by the tragic death of an American citizen, Aysenur Egzi Eygi, today in the West Bank and our hearts go out to her family and loved ones,” White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement. “We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask for more information and request an investigation into the incident.”
Earlier, The Associated Press reported that a woman was was shot and killed by Israeli troops, citing two doctors.
Witnesses and Palestinian media reported that she had been attending a protest in the Palestinian town of Beita, north of Ramallah, against the expansion of Israeli settlements in the northern West Bank, the AP added.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it had been in the area next to Beita, and “responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them.”
It was looking into reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of shots fired in the area, the IDF added.
“The details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was hit are under review,” it said.
Israeli forces are appearing to withdraw from the city of Jenin and other parts of the West Bank, where the Israel Defense Forces have been carrying out a deadly dayslong operation that left ruin to neighborhoods across the city and beyond.
In Jenin, the IDF said at least 14 people they identified as terrorists had been killed, including Wassem Hazem, the head of Hamas’ presence in Jenin who they said had directed shooting and explosive attacks in the area.
More than 30 people were also taken into IDF custody as suspects, though the military did not expand on what they were suspected of.
Palestinian health officials had said on Thursday that at least 39 people had been killed in the West Bank since Israel launched what it described as an operation to dismantle “terrorist cells” in the territory last Wednesday.
Many of those killed have been claimed as members of militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, although the Palestinian health ministry has said at least eight children were also among those killed at the time.
“For over a week, Israeli forces have been using lethal, war-like tactics across the northern West Bank, deepening people’s humanitarian needs and raising concerns over excessive use of force,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a humanitarian update published Wednesday.
OCHA said that that between Aug. 27 and Sept. 2, Israeli forces had killed 30 Palestinians in the territory, including seven children, “marking the highest weekly death toll since November 2023.”
At least two other American citizens have been killed in the West Bank since Oct 7. Mohammad Ahmed Mohammad Khdour, 17, was killed by IDF troops in February, and Tawfic Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, 17, was killed by Israeli fire in January.
