From YNet Hebrew:
Riad Al-Malakhi, the Palestinian Foreign minister, visiting Cairo, said that his ministry condemns all violence against civilians. In an interview with the Palestinian official media agency "Wafa", he condemned those responsible for the attack, and said that "There was never a case in the past where a Palestinian killed a baby and slaughtered people in this manner, be it because of nationalistic motives, or those of revenge, which raises a question as to the quick blaming of the Palestinians by the Israeli side".
Hamas has adopted the same line:
Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, denied the movement's involvement in the attack in the settlement of Itamar near Nablus, stressing that Hamas' and Palestinian resistance groups' policy is not to target children.Given the previous cold-blooded murders of Koby Mandell, Yosef Ishran, infant Shalhevet Pass, the lionization by the PA leaders of Samir Kuntar who bashed in the head of a 4-year old girls and Dalal Mughrabi who killed 13 children, not to mention previous attacks on a bar mitzvah party, a pizza shop and an ice cream shop, these statements are nothing short of baldfaced lies.
The new meme is trying to sell the idea that the Fogels were murdered by - Jews! They are stressing that no major terror group has taken credit for the attack as proof that Arabs couldn't have done it. (The Al Aqsa Brigades seemed to have taken responsibility but they now deny it, and the Imad Mughniyeh group has claimed responsibility but it is unclear if they really exist.)
However ludicrous the idea that Palestinian Arab terrorists don't target children, it is nonetheless significant that (outside of Islamic Jihad) the major groups are implicitly or explicitly condemning the attack. That would not have happened during the height of the intifada. Also, while there is some, I am not seeing too much praise for the attack in Arabic forums.
As far as I can tell, this is the first time that any attack on a settlement was met with anything but full pride and joy by the Palestinian Arab public, no matter who the victims were.
(h/t sshender)