ISTANBUL

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday condemned "Israel's barbaric intervention against peaceful anti-occupation protest in the West Bank."

President Erdogan's remarks came after a Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was shot dead by Israeli forces on Friday during a protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita in the Nablus district of the occupied West Bank.

Wishing Allah's mercy on Eygi, President Erdogan stated on X: "As Türkiye, we will continue to make efforts on every platform to end this occupation and genocide policy of Israel, which has been going on for almost a year, in which 41,000 people have been massacred, including children, young and old, and to hold Israel to account before the law for its crimes against humanity."

Tensions have escalated throughout the occupied West Bank as Israel continues its assault on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 40,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Hamas's Oct. 7 attack last year, which killed nearly 1,200 Israelis.

At least 691 people have been killed and over 5,700 injured by Israeli fire in the West Bank since then, according to the Health Ministry.