IDF locates escape route used by assailant in Psagot attack

Right-leaning Knesset Members urge peace-talks halt in light of "hypocritical" West Bank violence.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, BEN HARTMAN, JPOST.COM STAFF
Girl on strecher illustrative 370 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
Girl on strecher illustrative 370
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
The IDF have found a hole in the fence of the West Bank settlement of Psagot which they believe was used as an escape route for the assailant involved in a suspected terror attack, an IDF spokesperson confirmed for The Jerusalem Post on Sunday morning.
A nine-year-old girl was injured in the attack over Saturday night and she was rushed to the Sha'are Zedek Medical Center for treatment.
The IDF also found what they originally believed to be the gun used in the attack, but a police investigation later revealed that the 'weapon' found was a toy and not related to the incident.
Israel Glick, father of the girl who was injured in the attack, described the harrowing event in his own words during an interview with Army Radio.
"We went outside and found Noam standing and she told me 'father there's an Arab here.' I realized that this was a security incident and a nightmare, this is the scariest thing that could happen to a family, that a terrorist wants to break inside our home, then I pulled Noam into the house. Noam surprised the terrorist and actually scared him so that instead of entering our house - he shot her. "
After the attack was reported, the IDF’s Binyamin Division entered the area with large forces to search for the suspect.
West Bank police said the girl was playing in the yard of her house when she was hit by a shot to the upper body. The girl was rushed from the scene to the hospital in Jerusalem. She was lightly wounded, hospital officials said.
Magen David Adom spokesman Zaki Heller said that paramedics from the Jerusalem district received a report at 9:23 p.m. of an injured minor.
Shlomo Petroburg, who heads Magen David Adom’s Jerusalem District, lives in Psagot and arrived together with an ambulance at the scene of the shooting.
Petroberg said he realized his neighbor had been shot, and scrambled out of his home with medial equipment, finding the girl in her living room.
"I sat her down and began providing her with medical attention. She was fully conscious and I could communicate with her. Within a short period of time a Magen David Adom ambulance crew arrived and evacuated her,” Petroberg said.
A second paramedic on the scene, Yoni Hacohen, said the girl was frightened and in pain. “She spoke to us on the way the whole time. She was a real hero and we told her so,” he said.
The spokesman for Psagot, David Tzviel, said later on Saturday night that it is known for a fact that the shooter infiltrated the settlement, and that the girl was not shot by a sniper. He said he based this on the testimony of the girl, who told rescue personnel that she saw the man who shot her enter her yard, come up onto the balcony and shoot her.
He added that the settlement was still on lockdown, and that residents have not been told they can leave their houses yet.
Tzviel said that an emergency siren was sounded in the settlement to alert residents of the danger, and that at the moment IDF troops and the settlement emergency response team are still searching for the shooter.
Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon on Saturday urged Israeli peace negotiators to rethink current talks with their Palestinian counterparts, following the shooting of an Israeli child in the West Bank.
He insisted that the Saturday shooting of a nine-year-old girl in the settlement of Psagot proves "those who support terrorism" can not be trusted partners in peace.
He then vowed to catch the alleged Palestinian shooter, saying "If a person shoots a nine-year-old girl, their blood is on their own head."
"We must put an end to hypocrisy of the Palestinian leadership," Danon added.
Meanwhile, Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely said "The rise in terrorist attacks requires Israel to stop negotiations".
"This is a result of the Palestinian Authority's system of incitement and two-faced policy. On the one hand, they say they want peace, and on the other hand they incite against Israel."
According to Hotovely, "nothing has changed since Arafat; there was no partner and there is no partner for peace."
Knesset Finance Committee chairman Nissan Slomiansky (Bayit Yehudi) called the terrorist attack "further proof that continuing negotiations with the Palestinian Authority from a position of weakness brings more terror."
Slomiansky called for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon to form am aggressive policy to stop terror, and wished the injured girl a speedy recovery.MK Yoni Shetboun (Bayit Yehudi) called for a military operation "to bring back Israel's deterrence" after recent terror attacks.
Avi Ro'eh who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip called on the government not to release any more terrorists to the Palestinian Authority and to order the IDF to act to eradicate terror and to authorize building everywhere in Israel, including in Judea and Samaria.
"After a long period of quiet terrorism has returned," Ro'eh said.
"The envoys of [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] Abu Mazen are sitting with [Justice] Minister [Tzipi] Livni as incitement against Israelis continue and from near the Mukata in Ramallah terrorists leave to harm a nine-year old girl," Ro'eh said in a message he sent out from Psagot.
Tovah Lazaroff and Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.