U.S. urges Israel to swiftly investigate killing of American woman in West Bank

Editor's note: This story contains descriptions of violence.

The State Department on Monday urged Israel to move quickly to investigate the fatal shooting of an American woman during a protest against Israeli settlements in the West Bank last week. Eyewitnesses said she was shot in the head by Israeli forces policing the protest. Israeli authorities have said they are investigating the incident.

Aysenur Eygi, 26, was killed last Friday while attending a protest as part of a pro-Palestinian activist organization called the International Solidarity Movement, or ISM. For the past two months, ISM volunteers and other international activists have been demonstrating against a settlement outpost called Evyatar, which was initially unauthorized offshoot of the more established settlement of Beita.

While the international community considers all Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to be a violation of international law, such unauthorized outposts are illegal even under Israeli law. But in July, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — himself an ultranationalist settler — legalized Evyatar and several other outposts.

U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters Monday that Israel has promised to share its findings with the United States first. “We expect that to happen as swiftly as possible. We expect that process to be thorough. We expect that process to be transparent,” Patel said.

That is likely not to be enough to satisfy Eygi’s family, who are calling for the Biden administration to push for an independent investigation into the killing "to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties," according to the family's statement Friday.

Witnesses say Israeli forces shot Aysenur Eygi

Eygi, a dual American and Turkish citizen, had recently graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle and had traveled to the West Bank to protest in solidarity with Palestinians. They have been demonstrating against the expansion of Israeli settlements across the West Bank — a process they say has expanded since the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel last October. The attack in Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israel. In response, the Israeli military campaign in Gaza has killed almost 41,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials.

Eygi had arrived in Israel only two days before she was killed and joined prayers with Palestinians from local communities on top of a hill overlooking the Evyatar outpost before the demonstration began, ISM activists told NPR.

Vivi Chen, an activist who was at the scene, said the Israeli military showed up right after the prayers.

“They pushed us to the bottom of the hill, basically. The army, at this point, had been throwing tear gas. They had fired a few live rounds,” she said.

The witnesses said there were some clashes and rock-throwing. Activist Jay Harrison hid behind a dumpster and started to run when a shot hit his cover. He said that's when he heard another shot about 15 feet away. “I saw someone crumble and fall backward,” he said. He realized it was Eygi. He ran to take her pulse but it was very weak.

“I could see blood coming out their nose. Eyes weren't quite fully shut. You could see her eyes rolled back,” he said.

A doctor says she had stopped breathing when she got to the hospital

An ambulance took Eygi to the Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, the main city in the northern West Bank, where she was shortly pronounced dead. The hospital head, Dr. Fouad Nafaa, said she arrived with fixed, dilated pupils and no heartbeat. She wasn't breathing, and parts of her brain had spilled out. He said doctors performed six cycles of CPR but couldn't save her.

The Israeli military said in a statement that troops fired toward "a main instigator" who was throwing rocks at them.

But Harrison disputed that assertion. “There was no way for anyone to be able to hit them with rocks,” he said.

Chen, the other activist there that day, claimed it was a deliberate shot. “It wasn't like there was hundreds of bullets flying in the air and she got struck by accident," Chen said. "She was just moving down the hill, and then she was standing next to an olive tree.”

Israeli military raids and settler violence have risen since Oct. 7, including a major Israeli army raid on Jenin and two other towns in the northern occupied West Bank in recent weeks. Altogether, the attacks have killed more than 650 Palestinians, according to the United Nations.

The ISM says at least three of its activists have been killed since 2000. American ISM activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer in Gaza in 2003.

Palestinians hold a procession

Eygi’s death was met with shock and grief at the University of Washington.

“I’m absolutely devastated. The whole community is,” Aria Fani, Eygi’s former translation studies teacher, told The Seattle Times. He described Eygi as “one of the most brilliant students” he had ever taught.

The Associated Press reported that the Palestinian Authority held a funeral procession Monday for Eygi in the West Bank city of Nablus, but Turkey wants the body transferred there for burial.

Hadeel Al-Shalchi reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Michele Kelemen and James Hider reported from Washington, D.C.