Israeli troops have shot and killed a Turkish-American woman taking part in a protest against settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian and Turkish officials say.
The White House said it was deeply disturbed by the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi and called on Israel to investigate.
Turkey's foreign ministry said she was shot in the head and placed the blame on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.
As the war rages in — UNRWA (@UNRWA) #Gaza, violence and destruction in the #WestBank increase by the hour.The past week was the deadliest for Palestinian civilians in the West Bank since November last year. Many people were killed, including 7 children.This is unacceptable. It must stop now. pic.twitter.com/VejfuRc8oASeptember 5, 2024
Palestinian officials described her as a 26-year-old activist from Seattle who held both US and Turkish citizenship.
Eygi had recently graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle, the school's president Ana Mari Cauce said in a statement.
Cauce described the news of Eygi's death as "awful" and said she had a "positive influence" on other students.
She studied psychology and Middle Eastern languages and cultures, her family said in a statement late on Friday that was shared by the pro-Palestinian organisation Institute of Middle East Understanding.
Israel's military said its troops had fired toward a male "main instigator" who posed a threat by hurling rocks at soldiers.
The military was looking into reports a female foreign national "was killed as a result of shots fired in the area".
"The details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was hit are under review," it said.
There was no immediate comment on the incident from Netanyahu's office.
Doctors were unable to resuscitate Turkish-American woman Aysenur Ezgi Eygi. (AP PHOTO)
Fouad Nafaa, head of Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, told Reuters Eygi arrived there in critical condition with a serious head injury.
"We tried to perform a resuscitation operation on her but unfortunately she died," he said.
The Palestinian Authority's official news agency WAFA said the incident occurred during a regular protest march by activists in Beita, a village near Nablus that had been subjected to repeated attacks on Palestinians by Jewish settlers.
Eygi's family described her as a "fiercely passionate human rights activist" who had recently participated in college campus protests against US support for Israel's war in Gaza.
The statement called on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to pursue an independent US probe into her killing.
"I begged her not to go (to the West Bank), but she had this deep conviction that she wanted to participate in the tradition of bearing witness to the oppression of people and their dignified resilience," Aria Fani, an assistant professor of Middle Eastern languages and cultures at the University of Washington, told the Guardian.
The university president said "Aysenur was a peer mentor in psychology who helped welcome new students to the department and provided a positive influence in their lives".
White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said Washington was "deeply disturbed by the tragic death of an American citizen" in the West Bank.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed during Israeli operations in the West Bank. (EPA PHOTO)
"We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask for more information and request an investigation into the incident," he said.
Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan condemned Eygi's death, saying in a post on social media that Turkey "will continue to work in every platform to halt Israel's policy of occupation and genocide".
Israel denies its actions in occupied Palestinian territories amount to genocide.
In a separate incident on Friday near Beita, in the village of Qaryut, a 13-year-old girl was killed by Israeli gunfire, Palestinian health officials said, after settlers attacked the village.
WAFA quoted the girl's father as saying she was in their home when it was hit by gunfire.
The Israeli military said it was investigating after its troops had fired in the air to disperse what it described as violent confrontations between dozens of settlers and Palestinians in the area.
A rise in violent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank has stirred anger among Western allies of Israel, including the US, which has imposed sanctions on some Israelis involved in the settler movement.