Blinken demands overhaul of Israeli conduct in West Bank after killing of US protester

JERUSALEM: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday (Sep 10) demanded an overhaul of Israeli military conduct in the occupied West Bank as he decried the fatal shooting of an American protester against settlement expansion, which Israel said was accidental.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, who is also a Turkish national, was shot dead last Friday at a protest march in Beita, a village near Nablus where far-right Jewish settlers have repeatedly attacked Palestinians.
Israel’s military said on Tuesday that its initial inquiry found it was highly likely its troops had fired the shot that killed her but that her death was unintentional, and it voiced deep regret.
In his strongest comments to date criticising the security forces of Washington’s closest Middle East ally, Blinken described Eygi’s killing as “unprovoked and unjustified”. He said Washington would insist to the Israeli government that it makes changes to how its forces operate in the West Bank.
In a statement, the Israeli military said its commanders had conducted an initial investigation into the incident and found that the gunfire was not aimed at her but another individual it called “the key instigator of the riot.”
“The incident took place during a violent riot in which dozens of Palestinian suspects burned tyres and hurled rocks towards security forces at the Beita Junction,” it said.
Israel has sent a request to Palestinian authorities to carry out an autopsy, it said.
“We are deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional,” Eygi’s family said in a statement.