An American and Turkish activist was killed in the West Bank when Israeli forces opened fire

A 26-year-old Turkish-American woman was shot and killed in the West Bank during a protest on Friday, when Israeli forces opened fire.

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, an American and Turkish citizen, was participating in a protest against the expansion of Jewish settlements in the town of Beita near Nablus.

Ms. Eygi was reportedly shot by Israeli soldiers, according to local media reports. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was “looking into reports that a foreigner was killed as a result of gunfire fired from the area”.

Another protester told the BBC on Friday that Friday’s protest was the first time Ms Eygi had attended a protest with the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestine group.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned this “tragic loss”, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israel’s action “barbaric”.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Eygi was “killed by Israeli forces in the city of Nablus”.

The White House did not press charges, but asked Israel to investigate.

Earlier, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller he said Washington was “gathering more information about the circumstances of his death”.

Ms. Eygi was born in Antalya, as reported by Turkish media.

Dual-national he was taken to a hospital in Nablus and later pronounced dead.

Dr. Fouad Nafaa, the head of the Rafidia Hospital where Mrs. Eygi was admitted, confirmed that the American citizen in her mid-20s died “from a gunshot wound to the head”.

In a statement, the IDF said: “Today (Friday), during an Israeli defense force near the Beita area, soldiers returned fire at a major instigator of violence who threw stones at soldiers and threatened them. .

“The IDF is looking into reports that a foreigner was killed as a result of shots fired in the area. The details of the incident and the circumstances under which he was hit are being reviewed.”

Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli activist who was at the same protest as Ms Eygi, said he heard “two different rounds of bullets fired one after the other… then I heard another shot”.

“I found her lying on the ground, next to a tree, bleeding from her head,” said Mr. Pollak to AFP, while showing the blood on the hand he used to stop Ms. Eygi’s head from bleeding.

“I took his pulse, he had a strong pulse, we called an ambulance.

“From there we took him to the local health center, the doctor entered the ambulance and continued to the hospital, they tried to help him but failed.

Mr Pollak said the killing “is now in the spotlight because he is an American citizen”.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Pollak was asked about the IDF statement, in which the Israeli army said the security forces were responding to “a major instigator who threw stones at the soldiers and threatened them”. Mr Pollak said there had been clashes, but felt that “the soldiers were not under threat”.

He also said that where Ms. Eygi was shot “it was a different incident in a remote area,” adding that “there was no stone throwing” where he was.

It comes as Israeli forces withdrew from the city of Jenin and their refugee camp in the West Bank on Friday, following a major nine-day operation there.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health says at least 36 Palestinians – 21 from the Jenin region – were killed at the time. Most of the dead are said to be members of armed groups, but the department says children are also among those killed.

Over the past 50 years, Israel has built settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where more than 700,000 Jews now live.

The settlements are said to be illegal under international law – that is the position of the UN Security Council and the UK government, among others – although Israel denies this.