An Israeli motorist was shot dead late this evening near the Jewish settlement of Beit Hagai south of the West Bank town of Hebron bringing to five the number of people killed in the Middle East today.
The attack was apparently carried out by Palestinians in another car who fled after the shooting, the officials said. It was not immediately clear if the victim was a settler.
Earlier, Israeli forces shot dead at least four suspected militants on the southern edge of the Golan Heights.
Security sources said the incident occurred near Ein Sarid, close to the Tel Katsir kibbutz, but it was not immediately clear where the four men were from.
Military sources said a group of four men armed with Kalashnikovs had crossed the border from Jordan, and had been shot dead by Israeli troops close to the Sea of Galilee.
Against the backdrop of today's violence senior Israeli and Palestinian security officials started a new round of US-mediated talks seeking agreement on a ceasefire declaration, sources from both sides said.
Israeli public radio said the joint security high committee convened in Tel Aviv for the fourth session hosted by US envoy Mr Anthony Zinni since he resumed his truce mission on March 14th.
The two sides were reportedly set to clinch a truce deal Thursday night, but that meeting was scrapped after a suicide bomber blew himself up and killed three Israelis in the heart of West Jerusalem.
That attack, which followed a suicide bombing in northern Israel Wednesday, was claimed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a radical offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
The joint security talks organised by Mr Zinni are centered around the Tenet plan, the roadmap for a ceasefire drafted last June by CIA chief Mr George Tenet.
AFP