Questions surround Israel’s investigation into American citizen killed in West Bank

Reporters pressed a State Department spokesman for information about Israel’s investigation into the killing of an American woman whose family says she was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper on Monday — but received no details from the Biden administration.

Instead, Vedant Patel was unable to offer evidence for why Aysenur Eygi’s family should be confident in the pace or veracity of an Israeli-led investigation as journalists found no answers to questions about when an investigation would be completed, whether eyewitnesses would be interviewed, or whether the US would take any action to ensure that the truth came out.

Patel was questioned on Monday at the State Department’s daily news briefing about the killing of Eygi on Friday near Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Tensions and violence in the occupied territory have skyrocketed in recent months as the Israeli military assault on Gaza has continued and Isareli forces have clashed with militants in neighboring Lebanon as well. In the West Bank, much of the violence has been fueled by a right-wing settler movement accused of violating international law and seizing land from Palestininian families.

On Friday, that violence escalated during a protest and an American-born activist, Aysenur Eygi, was killed. An autopsy was carried out by local medical officials, who have told news outlets that Eygi was killed by a single bullet to the head.

Patel was specifically asked at Monday’s briefing about Presdent Joe Biden’s vow that America would “respond” if a US citizen was targeted anywhere in the world.

«What the president was talking about was a terrorist attack or a direct attack from a state or non-state actor,” Patel responded.

But the State Department’s deputy