Israel PM: Palestinian leaders to blame for attack

JERUSALEM (AP) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he holds the Palestinian Authority responsible for a suspected Palestinian militant attack on a young Israeli girl.

Netanyahu told his Cabinet that the Palestinian government was to blame for what he called the continuing "incitement" in official Palestinian media. He did not elaborate.

Relatives of the 9-year-old girl said she was shot by a Palestinian gunman in the West Bank settlement of Psagot Saturday night. By Sunday, doctors described her wounds as light.

There was no claim of responsibility on the attack, but militants in the Gaza Strip praised the attack.

"We salute and congratulate our people in the West Bank for heroic resistance operations that target Israeli soldiers and Zionist settlers as a response to all acts of violence, oppression and terrorism practiced by the Israeli occupation against our people," said Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for the ruling Hamas movement in Gaza.

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Settler leader Israel Ganz said security forces spent the night searching for the perpetrator, and that officials believe the attacker escaped.

Also Sunday, Israeli police said they had arrested a group of 14 Israeli minors suspected of coordinating attacks on Palestinians in Jerusalem over the last few weeks.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the minors are between the ages of 13 and 16 and study at various religious seminaries across Israel. He said they worked together to attack Palestinians and their private property to avenge past Palestinian attacks on Israelis. He said no Palestinians had been injured in the attacks.