Israeli girl seriously wounded by gunfire near West Bank settlement

A nine-year-old Israeli girl was seriously wounded Saturday night during a shooting attack near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

While security forces are combing the area in search of possible snipers, Israeli police said it is most likely a terror attack launched from a Palestinian village.

The nine-year-old was playing in the backyard of her parents' home in Psagot, a settlement north of Ramallah, when she was hit by a single shot in the chest, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Xinhua.

A team of paramedics in the community provided the girl with initial treatment. She was rushed to a Jerusalem hospital, where she arrived in serious condition.

Military and Border Police forces stationed in the Binyamin Regional Council are canvassing the area from where the shot was fired in search of gunmen, local media outlets reported. The settlement's residents have been instructed to remain in their homes until instructed otherwise.

"There is a strong possibility that this was a terror attack. It seems to have been carried out by a sniper from a nearby Palestinian village," Rosenfeld said.

However, the Walla news site reported that troops had identified a breach in the electronic fence surrounding the settlement, as well as footprints, and cited the girl as saying that she identified the shooter.

"I saw a masked man shooting me, probably with a handgun," she was quoted as telling relatives en route to the hospital.

Two weeks ago, a Palestinian sniper shot dead an Israeli soldier in the West Bank city of Hebron. Efforts are ongoing to capture the gunman who is still at large.