NABLUS, West Bank (AP) — Israeli soldiers killed an American woman protesting against West Bank settlements on Friday, a witness said. He said she was shot in a moment of calm after early afternoon clashes, when she posed no threat to Israeli forces. Two Palestinian doctors said Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, of Seattle, was shot in the head.

The US government confirmed Eygi’s death but did not say whether the young University of Washington graduate, who was also a Turkish citizen, had been shot by Israeli troops. The White House said it was “deeply disturbed” by the killing of a US citizen and called on Israel to investigate the incident.

The Israeli military said it was investigating reports that soldiers killed a foreign national when they shot at an “instigator of violent activities” in the protest area.

The murder came amid a wave of violence in the West Bank since War between Israel and Hamas began in October with Increasing Israeli attacksAttacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis, Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and tougher military measures to Palestinian protests. According to Palestinian health authorities, more than 690 Palestinians were killed.

Also on Friday, Israeli troops shot dead 13-year-old Palestinian girl Bana Laboom in her village outside the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian health officials said.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that an “initial investigation indicates” that security forces were deployed to break up a riot between Palestinian and Israeli civilians, which also involved mutual stone-throwing. Security forces fired into the air, the military said.

“A report has been received of a Palestinian girl killed by gunfire in the area. The incident is currently under investigation,” the military added.

Eygi, a volunteer with the activist group International Solidarity Movement, was taking part in a weekly demonstration against settlement expansion that has been taking place for years and has often been the subject of Israeli raids and stone-throwing by protesters.

Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli who took part in Friday’s protests, said the shooting occurred shortly after dozens of Palestinians and international activists held a collective prayer on a hill outside the northern West Bank town of Beita overlooking the Israeli settlement of Evyatar.

Soldiers surrounded the prayer and clashes soon broke out, with Palestinians throwing stones and troops firing tear gas and live ammunition, Pollak said.

The protesters and activists retreated and the clashes died down, he said. Then he saw two soldiers on the roof of a nearby house point a gun at the group and fire.

He said he saw Eygi “lying on the ground, next to an olive tree, bleeding to death.”

Two doctors confirmed that Eygi was shot in the head: Dr. Ward Basalat, who provided first aid at the scene, and Dr. Fouad Naffa, director of Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, where she was taken.

According to ISM, 17 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during the weekly Beita protests since March 2020. A month ago, American Amado Sison was shot in the leg by Israeli forces as he tried to flee tear gas and live ammunition, he said.

At the University of Washington, where Eygi recently graduated with a degree in psychology, Aria Fani, a professor of Middle Eastern languages ​​and cultures, remembered Eygi’s activism earlier this year in a pro-Palestinian camp and her as someone who had a gift for listening to others.

Fani said he tried to dissuade Eygi from traveling to the West Bank, but she told him “she had to bear witness in the interest of her own humanity.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was “intensely focused” on finding out what happened and that “we will draw the necessary conclusions and consequences from this.”

In a post on X, the Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned “this murder committed by” the Israeli government. Turkey will work to ensure “that the murderers of our citizens are brought to justice,” said ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli.

Human rights groups say Israeli soldiers who kill Palestinians or their foreign supporters are rarely held accountable. The Israeli military says it investigates such cases and takes action when there is criminal misconduct.

Since 2000, at least three activists of the International Solidarity Movement have been killed.

Two of them were killed in Gaza in 2003. The American Rachel Corrie was crushed to death when she tried to stop an Israeli military bulldozer from destroying a Palestinian home. About a month later, British citizen Tom Hurndall was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier. ISM activists often place themselves between Israeli forces and Palestinians to prevent the Israeli military from operating.

The Israeli military ruled Corrie’s death an accident, a conclusion widely rejected by human rights groups. The soldier who killed Hurndall was sentenced to 11 and a half years in prison and was released after serving just over half of the term.

Shireen Abu Akleh — a Palestinian-American journalist for the Al Jazeera news channel — was shot dead in 2022 while covering an Israeli raid in the West Bank. The US concluded that an Israeli soldier probably killed her accidentally, and Israel acknowledged that while this was a “high probability” it was not a certainty, and ruled out a criminal investigation. Al Jazeera accuses the troops of killing her intentionally.

Since the war between Israel and Hamas began, a handful of Americans have been killed in the West Bank, apparently by Israeli fire. Two Palestinian-American teenagers, Mohammad Khdour and Tawfic Abdel Jabbar were shot dead within a month of each other while driving near their villages. The results of the US and Israeli investigations into their deaths have not yet been released.

In a statement Thursday, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said President Joe Biden’s administration had not done enough to achieve “justice and accountability” for Khdour and Abdel Jabbar. He said it must “use American influence to demand the prosecution of those responsible for harm to American citizens.”

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Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee in Washington, Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Bank, and Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report. AP investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York also contributed.

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This story corrects the day the 13-year-old Palestinian was fatally shot.