Israel’s military said Wednesday one of its helicopters crashed in the southern Gaza Strip, killing two Israeli soldiers and injuring seven others.
A preliminary investigation indicated the crash was not caused by enemy fire. The helicopter went down during a mission to evacuate an injured soldier in the Rafah area.
In the West Bank, an Israeli airstrike Wednesday killed at least five people in the city of Tubas, according to Palestinian emergency officials.
The Israeli military reported conducting a strike targeting an “armed terrorist cell” in the same area.
In another part of the West Bank, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israeli forces detained five of the group’s emergency responders. The group said the personnel were transporting a patient and evacuating several children from the Tulkarm refugee camp when the detentions took place.
Other Israeli strikes Wednesday targeted rocket launchers and other sites used by Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, as fears persist of a wider conflict in the region.
American killed
U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like the deadly shooting of a U.S. citizen who was protesting Israeli settlements in the West Bank will never happen again.
Biden said in a statement that Israel “has acknowledged its responsibility” for the killing of Aysenur Eygi, and that a preliminary investigation indicated what happened “was the result of a tragic error resulting from unnecessary escalation.”
Biden called for full accountability and said the United States expects to have continued access to information from future aspects of the investigation into Eygi’s killing.
“The violence in the West Bank has been going on for too long. Violent extremist Israeli settlers are uprooting Palestinians from their homes. Palestinian terrorists are sending car bombs to kill civilians. I will continue to support policies that hold all extremists — Israelis and Palestinians alike — accountable for stoking violence and serving as obstacles to peace,” Biden said.
The Pentagon said late Tuesday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed the Eygi’s death in a phone call with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Austin urged Gallant to reexamine Israel’s “rules of engagement while operating in the West Bank,” the Pentagon said.
Eygi was shot in the head during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the occupied West Bank last week.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was highly likely that she was "hit directly and unintentionally by IDF fire." The Israeli military expressed deep regret.
During a visit to London, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Tuesday that the investigation and eyewitness accounts show "that her killing was both unprovoked and unjustified."
"No one, no one should be shot and killed for attending a protest. No one should have to put their life at risk just for freely expressing their views," he said.
Cease-fire effort
Blinken said Tuesday that the United States will continue working with Qatar and Egypt to bridge remaining gaps in a cease-fire deal to end the conflict in Gaza as soon as possible.
"More than 90% of the issues have been agreed, so we're down to a handful of issues, not even a handful of issues that are hard but fully resolvable in our judgment," Blinken told reporters during a joint news conference in London with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
Lammy, who recently returned from the United Arab Emirates, said the UAE is "showing some forward-leaning in their commitment" to security guarantees in post-war Gaza. He stressed the need for a pathway to a two-state solution, emphasizing that there can be no role for Hamas in post-war Gaza.
The October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel last year killed about 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, although the Israeli military says the death toll includes several thousand militants.
Hamas has been designated a terror group by the U.S., U.K., EU and others.
Correspondents Nike Ching and Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
