The family of American activist Aychenur Ezgi Egi said on Tuesday that neither the White House nor Joe Biden had called them to offer condolences.
Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, a Turkish national, was shot dead last Friday during a protest in the village of Beita, near Nablus, where Palestinians have come under repeated attack from far-right Jewish settlers.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Tuesday condemned the shooting death of an American protester against settlement expansion, which Israel said was an accident, and called for a review of Israeli military actions in the occupied West Bank.
Turkish and Palestinian authorities said Israeli forces shot Egi, a volunteer with the activist group International Solidarity Movement (ISM), during a demonstration. Palestinian officials said he was shot in the head, Reuters reported.
The Israeli army expressed deep regret on Tuesday after an initial investigation found that the shot that killed the woman was likely fired by its forces, but that her death was unintentional.
“The bullets ricocheted off the ground,” the president told reporters afterwards, and a U.S. official said that was the conclusion of the Israeli investigation, whose findings were handed over to the United States on Tuesday.
Eigi’s family said the Israeli preliminary investigation was “completely inadequate” and called for an independent US investigation.
Ms Agui’s partner, Hamid Ali, responded to Mr Biden’s comments, saying her death was “not an accident and those who killed her must be held accountable”.
“The White House has not spoken to us. We have been waiting for four days for President Biden to pick up the phone and take the right action,” Ali said.
In their strongest comments yet, Mr. Blinken and Mr. Austin criticized security forces of America’s closest Middle East ally, calling Mr. Aegis’ killing “unprovoked and unjustified.” They each said the United States would urge the Israeli government to change the way its forces operate in the West Bank.
“No one should be shot and killed for taking part in a protest. No one should have to risk their life simply for freely expressing their views,” Blinken told reporters in London.
“In our judgment, the Israeli security forces need to fundamentally change the way they operate in the West Bank, including by changing the rules of engagement.”
“This is the second American to be killed at the hands of Israeli security forces. This is unacceptable,” Blinken said.
An Israeli government spokesman declined to comment on Blinken’s remarks.
The Pentagon said late Tuesday that Secretary of Defense Austin met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and expressed “deep concerns about the IDF’s responsibility for Mr. Aygi’s unjustified death.” Austin also asked Gallant to “reconsider the IDF’s rules of engagement during operations in the West Bank,” according to the Pentagon.
The Israeli army had previously said an investigation by the military police’s Criminal Investigations Branch was ongoing and that its findings would be submitted for a higher-level review once completed.
“We’ll be watching this very closely,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters, adding that a criminal investigation by the Israeli military was an unusual step.
“We will be waiting to see how the criminal investigation goes forward, what it finds and who is held accountable and how,” Kirby added.
The Israeli army said in a statement that military commanders had carried out an initial investigation into the incident and found that the shots were not aimed at her, but at another person whom it called the “main perpetrator of the riots.”
“The incident occurred during riots when dozens of suspected Palestinians burned tires and hurled stones at security forces at Beita crossing,” the report said.
Israel said it had asked the Palestinian Authority to conduct an autopsy.
“We are deeply outraged by any suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was unintentional,” Agui’s family said in a statement.
A surge in violent attacks by settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank has angered Israel’s Western allies, including the United States, which has imposed sanctions on some Israelis linked to the hardline settler movement. Tensions are rising as Israel wages war with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians have been protesting weekly in Beita since 2020 against the expansion of the settler stronghold of Ebiatar. Ultranationalists in Israel’s ruling coalition have been moving to legalize previously unauthorised settlements like Ebiatar, a move Washington says threatens stability in the West Bank and undermines efforts towards a two-state solution to the conflict.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East war, and the Palestinians want the area as the heartland of a future independent state.
Israel has been building a growing number of settlements that most countries consider illegal, a claim it disputes, citing historical and biblical ties to the area.