Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday ordered the country's security branches to find the "criminals" who vandalized a mosque in a West Bank village, joining other Israeli leaders in condemning the incident.

"Expose the criminals as soon as possible, and put them on trial," Netanyahu was quoted by local daily Ha'aretz as telling officials.

Meanwhile, The Jerusalem Post quoted the Israeli prime minister as saying that "Any violence is unacceptable, not of Jews against Palestinians and not of Palestinians against Jews."

"The government will respond forcefully to all kinds of violence," vowed Netanyahu.

His comments came shortly after Israeli President Shimon Peres urged officials to do everything in their power to bring to justice the people behind Friday's attack, which he said ran counter to Israel's fundamental values.

"The government, the security forces and the law enforcement institutions must take every measure, with the utmost urgency, to find the perpetrators and put them on trial in accordance with the gravity of the acts," Peres said in a statement.

"It can't be that an extremist group endangers the status of Israel as a state that abides laws and respects religions," added the Israeli president.

On Friday, assailants torched furniture at a mosque in the village of Yasuf and sprayed Nazi slogans in Hebrew on the premises.

They are suspected of being settlers protesting Israel's temporary freeze on new construction in West Bank settlements, said Ha'aretz.

In response to the incident, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that Israel must rein in settlers' "brutal" actions.

"The torching of the mosque in Yasuf is a despicable crime, and the settlers are behaving with brutality," said Abbas, who called the act a violation of religious freedom.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Friday condemned the mosque attack as a bid to thwart the peace process with the Palestinians.

"This is an extremist act geared toward harming the government's efforts to advance the political process for the sake of Israel's future," said Barak.

(Xinhua News Agency December 13, 2009)