US lawmakers seek accountability over US-Turkish citizen's murder by Israel

Condemnations and calls for investigation are growing after Israeli occupation troops shot an American-Turkish woman in the head and killed her during an anti-settlement protest in the West Bank.

The US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed the killing of the 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi on Friday, while the White House said it was "deeply disturbed" by the killing.

Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington state condemned the killing.

"The government of Israel must deliver answers immediately and hold the perpetrators of this killing accountable," Murray said in a statement.

Democratic US Representative Pramila Jayapal called Eygi's death a terrible tragedy, and said her office was actively working to gather more information on the events that led to her death.

"I am very troubled by the reports that she was killed by IDF (Israeli Army) soldiers. The Netanyahu government has done nothing to stop settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank, often encouraged by right-wing ministers of the Netanyahu government," Jayapal wrote in the prepared statement.

"The killing of an American citizen is a terrible proof point in this senseless war of rising tensions in the region."

US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken to "do something" after the Turkish-American activist's murder by the Israeli army."

@SecBlinken: Do something to save lives!" Tlaib wrote on X.

In a separate post addressed to the US State Department spokesperson Miller, Tlaib said: "Hey how’d they die, Matt? Was it magic? Who or what killed Aysenur? Asking on behalf of Americans who want to know.

Third American killed in West Bank since October

President of Eygi's alma mater sent condolences to her family and called for ceasefire in Israel's genocidal war on besieged Gaza.

Eygi graduated earlier this year from the University of Washington with a psychology degree. She also studied middle eastern languages and cultures while at the university in her hometown of Seattle.

University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce released a statement on Friday calling Eygi's killing "awful news" and sent condolences to her family and friends.

"Aysenur was a peer mentor in psychology who helped welcome new students to the department and provided a positive influence in their lives," Cauce wrote.

"This is the second time over the past year that violence in the region has taken the life of a member of our UW community and I again join with our government and so many who are working and calling for a ceasefire and resolution to the crisis."

US Senator Chris Van Hollen said Eygi was the third American killed in the occupied West Bank since October last year.

"Biden Administration has not been doing enough to pursue justice and accountability on their behalf," Van Hollen, a Democrat, who sits on the Senate's Foreign Relations committee, said.

"If the Netanyahu Government will not pursue justice for Americans, the US Department of Justice must."

Victim volunteered with Fazaa campaign

Fouad Nafaa, the director of the Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, told Anadolu Agency that Eygi arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound to the head. She succumbed to her wounds despite attempts by medical teams to revive her, according to Nafaa.

Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli soldiers opened live fire on a group of Palestinians participating in a demonstration condemning the illegal Zionist settlements on Mount Sbeih in Beita, which lies south of the city of Nablus.

Vivi Chen, who volunteers for Fazaa – another pro-Palestine group which works in partnership with International Solidarity Movement (ISM), said Eygi was crouched near a dumpster at the bottom of a hill when shots were fired.

Chen confirmed Eygi was there with ISM.

"We were all at the bottom of the hill and the Israeli army was at the top," Chen said.

"There were two volunteers sitting behind a dumpster and they fired one shot at the dumpster. It hit a metal plane. And then there was another shot and they shot – they shot her in the head."

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA confirmed that the victim was a volunteer with the Fazaa campaign, an initiative aimed at supporting and protecting Palestinian farmers from ongoing violations by illegal Israeli settlers and the military.

Residents of Beita hold weekly protests after Friday prayers to oppose the illegal Israeli settlement of Avitar, which sits on the peak of Mount Sbeih. The community demands the removal of the settlement, which they view as a violation of their land rights.

Eygi was born in the Turkish city of Antalya in 1998.