By Simon Lewis and Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Monday called on Israel to complete a full inquiry into the killing of an American Turkish woman last week in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, saying it believes Israel has begun such a probe.
Turkish and Palestinian officials said on Friday that Israeli troops shot 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi who had been taking part in a protest against settlement expansion.
“Our understanding is that our partners in Israel are looking into the circumstances of what happened, and we expect them to make their findings public, and expect that whatever those findings are, expect them to be thorough and transparent,” U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told a news briefing.
Palestinian news agency WAFA said the incident took place during a regular protest march by activists in Beita, a village near Nablus that has seen repeated attacks on Palestinians by Jewish settlers.
Israel’s military said it was looking into reports that a female foreign national “was killed as a result of shots fired in the area. The details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was hit are under review.”
Patel did not provide further information on the circumstances of the killing.
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan condemned Eygi’s death, saying in a post on social media that Turkey “will continue to work in every platform to halt Israel’s policy of occupation and genocide”. Israel denies its actions in occupied Palestinian territories amount to genocide.
A rise in violent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank has stirred anger among Western allies of Israel, including the United States, which has imposed sanctions on some Israelis involved in the settler movement.
Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state. Israel has built settlements there that most countries deem illegal, which Israel disputes citing historical and biblical ties to the land.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis, Rami Ayyub and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Chris Reese and Cynthia Osterman)
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