Blinken says Israeli killing of US-Turkish activist 'unprovoked and unjustified'

LONDON

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said that Israel's military needs to make "fundamental changes" after a U.S.-Turkish activist was shot dead during a protest in the occupied West Bank last week.

"Her killing was both unprovoked and unjustified," Blinken said of the death of 26-year-old Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi.

"In our judgement, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement," he told reporters in London.

Noting that Eygi was second American citizen who was killed by the Israeli forces, Blinken stated, "No one should be shot and killed for attending a protest."

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it was highly likely its forces accidentally shot dead Eygi during the protest last week.

In a statement on Eygi's death, the Israeli military said an inquiry had "found that it is highly likely that she was hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF (Israeli army) fire".

It added that the fire "was not aimed at her, but aimed at the key instigator of the riot".

The United Nations rights office had earlier said Israeli forces killed Eygi with a "shot in the head".

The mayor of Beita, the Palestinian official news agency Wafa and her family also reported that Israeli soldiers killed her.

Palestinian eyewitness Mounir Khdair said that the Israeli sniper who killed Eygi cried out for joy after shooting her.

"After shooting her, he was happy, he shouted for joy," Khdair told Anadolu Agency.

The international community, including Türkiye and the United Nations, has condemned the killing, with the death sparking outrage and calls for accountability.

Prior to Tuesday's statement the Israeli army acknowledged it had opened fire in the Beita area and said it was "looking into reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of shots fired".

It had also said its forces "responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them" during the protest.

Tuesday's army statement said Eygi was killed during the protest.

Eygi was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian organisation, which on Saturday dismissed claims that ISM activists threw rocks at Israeli forces as "false" and said the demonstration was peaceful.