JERUSALEM >> The Israeli military said Tuesday that it was highly likely that a slain American activist was “unintentionally” struck by Israeli gunfire last week at a protest in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the killing was “not acceptable.”

In the toughest criticism the United States has leveled at Israel over the death of the activist, Aysenur Eygi, Blinken said that “no one should be shot and killed for attending a protest.” He said she was the second American to be killed by Israeli security forces in recent years, after a Palestinian-American journalist was fatally shot in the West Bank in 2022.

“Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes to the way they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement,” he said at a news conference in London.

Account disputed

The Israeli military, in a statement describing its initial inquiry into Eygi’s death Friday, expressed regret over her killing and said that it had meant to target a person it described as a “key instigator” of the protest, which it called “a violent riot.”

But eyewitnesses vehemently disputed Israel’s justifications for opening fire, saying that the clashes had finished by the time Eygi was shot and that they had occurred in a separate location. They said Eygi and the other protesters were more than 200 yards away from the soldiers, who were in an elevated position, when the fatal shot was fired.

Palestinians have long said that Israel uses excessive force against them at clashes and protests in the West Bank, but the death of Eygi has shined a spotlight on the issue.

The criminal investigation division of the military police has been investigating the episode and will share its findings with military prosecutors later, the Israeli military said.

Family, activists react

On Tuesday, Eygi’s family called the military’s preliminary inquiry “wholly inadequate,” saying it was deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing “was in any way unintentional.”

“The disregard shown for human life in the inquiry is appalling,” the family said in a statement. “This cannot be misconstrued as anything except a deliberate, targeted and precise attack by the military against an unarmed civilian,” they added.

The family also demanded that President Joe Biden and other senior U.S. officials order an independent investigation into “the Israeli military’s deliberate targeting and killing of a US Citizen.”

Human rights advocates said Israel has a history of failing to take meaningful action against soldiers accused of wrongdoing in the West Bank.

“We absolutely do not expect meaningful accountability to emerge” in this case, said Sarit Michaeli, a spokesperson for Israeli rights group B’Tselem. “Similar incidents occur against Palestinians all the time, and they don’t lead to any real consequences for perpetrators.”

Jonathan Pollak, 42, a second Israeli activist, said he was roughly 50 feet away from Eygi at the protest. He said the soldiers were standing at an elevated location at least 240 yards from her, undermining the assertion that their safety was threatened.

“She was not involved in the confrontations at any point,” Pollak said. “She was taking cover next to an olive tree when an Israeli soldier shot her dead without justification.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, three key eyewitnesses said the military hadn’t contacted them to collect their testimony.

Autopsy report

The bullet, according to the autopsy conducted by forensic examiners at An-Najah National University in Nablus, West Bank, penetrated Eygi’s head near her left ear. Fragments of the bullet were recovered, including one that was approximately 5 millimeters by 5 millimeters by 4 millimeters, and handed over to the office of the Palestinian Authority’s attorney general, the report said.

The autopsy said that the cause of death was “bleeding, edema, and laceration of brain matter,” adding that a CT scan of Eygi’s body didn’t show other injuries.

The office of the Palestinian Authority’s attorney general confirmed it received the fragments of the bullet and transferred them to a criminal investigations laboratory directed by the Palestinian police. The office declined to respond to further questions, saying it wouldn’t discuss other details about Eygi’s case while its investigation was ongoing.

Born in Turkey

Eygi, a Turkish American dual citizen who immigrated to the United States from Turkey as an infant and lived in Seattle, had recently arrived in the West Bank to join activists affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement, who demonstrate alongside Palestinians in the West Bank. On Friday, she joined the protest in the northern West Bank village of Beita, where residents have been demonstrating for years — sometimes violently — against a settler outpost on lands claimed by the village. The Israeli government had recently said it would legalize the outpost.

The Israeli military said Friday that soldiers had “responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity” who had thrown stones at Israeli forces and posed a threat.

Witnesses at the scene confirmed that some protesters had hurled rocks at Israeli troops, who responded with tear gas and gunfire, but they stressed those clashes had ended by the time Eygi was shot. “There was no stone-throwing, and it was calm for a few minutes,” said Eran Maoz, an Israeli activist who was at the protest.

Preceding Gaza

The demonstrations around Beita began before the current war between Israel and Hamas. Israeli settlers took over a nearby hilltop in 2021, erecting an outpost known as Evyatar on land claimed by the village. That prompted months of deadly protests in which several residents of Beita were killed and scores wounded.

The outpost was illegal under Israeli law when it was established, lacking Israeli government authorization. But in June, Israel’s Cabinet agreed to retroactively legalize Evyatar and four other outposts following a demand by Bezalel Smotrich, the hard-right Israeli finance minister and a settler leader.