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NABLUS, West Bank 鈥� Soldiers in the Israeli military killed an American woman demonstrating against settlements in the West Bank on Friday, two protesters who witnessed the shooting told The Associated Press. Two doctors said she was shot in the head.

The U.S. government confirmed the death of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi of Seattle 鈥� a recent graduate of the University of Washington 鈥� but did not say whether she had been shot by Israeli troops. The White House said in a statement that it was “deeply disturbed” by the killing of a U.S. citizen and called on Israel to investigate what happened.

鈥淚鈥檓 absolutely devastated. The whole community is,鈥� said Aria Fani, an assistant professor of Middle Eastern languages and cultures at UW, said, according to . Fani had taught Eygi in a translation studies class and got to know her well.

“It鈥檚 a huge tragedy,” she added.

The UK-based that Eygi listed herself on social media as having attended West Seattle High School. and told that outlet they remembered her from the Class of 2016’s junior year and sent a yearbook photo shown at right.

Eygi was also a Turkish citizen, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli said, adding that the country would exert 鈥渁ll effort to ensure that those who killed our citizen is brought to justice.鈥�

The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an 鈥渋nstigator of violent activity鈥� in the area of the protest.

Eygi was attending a weekly demonstration against settlement expansion, protests that have grown violent in the past: A month ago, American citizen Amado Sison was shot in the leg by Israeli forces, he said, as he tried to flee tear gas and live fire.

Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli who was participating in Friday’s protest, said the shooting occurred shortly after dozens of Palestinians and international activists held a communal prayer on a hillside 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, including Pollak and the Eygi, retreated from the hill and the clashes subdued, he said. He then watched as two soldiers standing on the roof of a nearby home trained a gun in the group鈥檚 direction and shot at them. He saw the flares leave the nozzle of the gun when the shots rang out. He said Eygi was about 10 or 15 meters (yards) behind him when the shots were fired.

He then saw her 鈥渓ying on the ground, next to an olive tree, bleeding to death,鈥� he said.

Mariam Dag, another ISM activist at the protest, also said she saw an Israeli soldier on a rooftop. Dag said she then heard the firing of two live bullets. One ricocheted off something metal and hit a Palestinian protester in the leg; the other hit Eygi, who had moved back into an olive grove, she said. Dag said she ran toward the fallen woman and saw blood coming from her head.

鈥淭he shots were coming from the direction of the army. They were not coming from anywhere else,鈥� she said.

Eygi had just arrived in the West Bank on Tuesday, Dag said. 鈥淭his was our first day on the ground together. She was very happy and very excited this morning to start. She was really keen on coming to the demonstration.”

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“This has been happening to Palestinians for decades. This happened because of the impunity which the Israelis act with,鈥� including help from Western governments, she said. Before Friday’s shooting, ISM said 17 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces at the weekly Beita protests since March 2020.

Local officials respond to the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi

At the University of Washington, where Eygi recently graduated with a degree in psychology, President Ana Mari Cauce released a statement in which she recalled Eygi as a mentor to her peers who 鈥渉elped welcome new students to the department and provided a positive influence in their lives.鈥� Eygi also took courses on the languages and cultures of the Middle East.

Both of Washington’s U.S. senators responded to the shooting of Eygi and issued strong statements.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray began her statement by saying she was “heartbroken and angry” about Eygi’s killing. She called on Israel’s government to answer questions for the American woman’s death.

“The government of Israel must deliver answers immediately and hold the perpetrators of this killing accountable,” Murray said in her statement. “I will be in close touch with the Biden administration to press the Israeli government for full transparency and accountability. My heart is with Aysenur’s family and loved ones during this difficult time.”

Murray also called for Israel to take action.

“Israel must take swift action to put an end to the illegal settler-driven violence that has escalated to a dangerous level in the West Bank,” Murray’s statement reads.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell also issued a short statement in response to Eygi’s death, calling it a “tragedy.” She added that her office has been in contact with the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Israel about her death.

I will do whatever I can to help her family at this difficult time,” Cantwell’s statement says. “Our hearts and prayers are with her family and her many friends in the greater Seattle area.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who represents Washington’s 7th District, which includes Seattle, issued a statement extending her condolences to those mourning, calling Eygi’s death a “terrible tragedy.’ She added that “My heart goes out to Aysenur鈥檚 family, friends, and loved ones.”

In the second part of her statement then called out Israel and, specifically, the “Netanyahu government” for failing to stop violence among settlers in the region.

鈥淚 am very troubled by the reports that she was killed by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers,” Jayapal’s statement reads. “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. The killing of an American citizen is a terrible proof point in this senseless war of rising tensions in the region.”

More on this incident and what happens next

Two doctors confirmed Eygi was shot in the head 鈥� Dr. Ward Basalat, who administered first aid at the scene, and Dr. Fouad Naffa, director of Rafidia Hospital in the nearby city of Nablus where she was taken.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. was 鈥渋ntensely focused鈥� on determining what happened and that 鈥渨e will draw the necessary conclusions and consequences from that.鈥�

In a written statement shared on X, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said it condemned 鈥渢his murder carried out by” the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

At least three activists from the International Solidarity Movement have been killed since 2000. ISM activists often place themselves between Israeli forces and Palestinians to try to stop the Israeli military from carrying out operations. Two ISM activists 鈥� American Rachel Corrie and British photography student Tom Hurndall 鈥� were killed in Gaza in 2003.

Corrie was聽聽as she tried to block an Israeli military bulldozer from demolishing a Palestinian home in the southern Gaza town of Rafah near the Egyptian border. Hurndall was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier about a month later.

It鈥檚 also one of a handful of cases in which apparent Israeli fire killed Americans inside the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Neither American nor Israeli authorities have released findings into investigations into the聽聽Mohammad Khdour and Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, shot in the span of a month while driving down dirt roads close to their villages in the northern West Bank.

Palestinian officials said the killing reflected Israel’s intensified repression of Palestinian protests in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Israeli forces rarely use live ammunition to put down protests inside Israel. But in the West Bank, Palestinian demonstrations are frequently met with live fire.

Hussein Al-Sheikh, the secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, wrote on X that the killing marked 鈥渁nother crime added to the series of crimes committed daily by the occupation forces.”

Settlements are overwhelmingly viewed by the international community as illegal under international law.

The settlement of Evyatar was initially an outpost unrecognized under Israeli law but was legalized by the Israeli cabinet in July, in a move the far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said was in response to recognition of Palestinian statehood by a number of countries.

Israeli fire has killed over 690 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, Palestinian health officials say. In that time, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis in the territory have also increased.

Contributing: The Associated Press; Steve Coogan