IDF holds selfinvestigation after shooting of US activist

US officials last weekend insisted that a ceasefire in Gaza is close even as fighting raged unabated in the blockaded Palestinian territory and violence spirals in the occupied West Bank, where witnesses said an AmericanTurkish dual national was killed by Israeli forces last Friday.

- Julian Borger and Sufian Taha BEITA and Bethan McKernan

But pressure from the US and the two mediators speaking to Hamas, Qatar and Egypt, has done little to assuage the fighting or rising tensions.

The US said it was urgently seeking more information about the killing of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, who witnesses said was shot in the head by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops during an anti-settlement protest in the West Bank. Several of Israel's western allies have imposed sanctions on individuals and organisations associated with Israel's settler movement, despite blowback from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Eygi's family called for an independent investigation, adding to the pressure on the Biden administration to end what critics say is US complicity in the Israeli occupation.