Biden claims Israel shot American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi in head by 'accident'

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that Israel's killing of a Turkish-American dual citizen during a protest in the occupied West Bank appeared to have been an accident, drawing further outrage from family of the slain activist.

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper last week while attending a peaceful protest in support of Palestinian farmers outside an illegal Israeli settlement near Nablus.

Despite witnesses saying there was no violence from the protesters, Eygi, who was in the demonstration, was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier, dying on her way to the hospital.

"Apparently, it was an accident -- it ricocheted off the ground, and she got hit by accident," Biden told reporters, referring to the findings of an Israeli preliminary investigation which concluded that Eygi was "highly likely hit indirectly and unintentionally" by soldiers.

Eygi's family on Tuesday slammed the president's remarks and dismissed the findings of the Israeli probe, while they also decried the lack of a call from Biden.

"The White House has not spoken with us. For four days, we have waited for President Biden to pick up the phone and do the right thing: To call us, offer his condolences, and let us know he is ordering an independent investigation," Eygi's partner, Hamid Ali, said in a statement.

"This was no accident and her killers must be held accountable."

Washington's response to Eygi's killing has been contrasted to its response to the recent death of Israeli-American captive Hersh Goldberg Polin in Gaza, whose family received a call from both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

On Wednesday, the president issued another statement saying that Israel must "do more" to ensure incidents like the killing of Eygi do not happen again.

"There must be full accountability. And Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again," Biden said.

Biden also decried the violence in the West Bank by "extremist Israeli settlers" and "Palestinian terrorists", one day after top US officials demanded an overhaul of Israeli military conduct in the occupied West Bank where dozens of Palestinians have been killed in the past two weeks.

"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 president's words echoed an earlier statement on Tuesday from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said the killng of the activist was "unprovoked and unjustified".

"In our judgement, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement," he told reporters in London.

Eygi's death comes amid Israel's killing of over 650 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since October, according to the Palestinian ministry of health, and an additional 10,400 detained in the same time frame.