BICOM

Israeli security forces continued to search yesterday for a gunman who shot and wounded a nine-year-old Israeli girl by her home in the West Bank settlement Psagot on Saturday night.

The girl, Noam Glick, who sustained light injuries, said a masked man approached the house and shot her in the shoulder from close range. Her father, Israel Glick, who was alerted by his daughter’s shouting, pulled her to safety. He told Army Radio that “this is the scariest thing that could happen to a family,” adding that Noam had surprised the intruder and “actually scared him so that instead of entering our house he shot her.”     

Yesterday morning, IDF forces located a hole in the perimeter fence at Psagot which was used by the attacker but they have yet to apprehend a suspect. Psagot established in 1981 north of Jerusalem and adjacent to Ramallah, has a population of around 1600.

Speaking to his cabinet yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deplored the “heinous attack” and noted the recent “increase in the number of terrorist attacks.” He added that “the Palestinian Authority cannot shirk its responsibility for these kinds of incidents” so long as it condones incitement against Israel.

Meanwhile, fourteen Knesset members are today set to meet PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, despite calls by some legislators to cancel the visit following Saturday’s attack. The delegation includes MKs for Labour, Meretz, Shas and Hatnuah and follows the first ever visit to the Knesset by a delegation of PA officials in July. Labour’s Hilik Bar who heads the delegation said “Cancelling the meeting would give them [the attackers] a prize.”