Undercover Israeli Troops Kill 4 Palestinians in West Bank : Mideast: In another shootout on same day, soldiers at Gaza Strip border wound 4 Arabs, including 2 police officers.

JERUSALEM —  Undercover Israeli security forces shot and killed four Palestinians on Wednesday night in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, continuing a New Year’s surge in violence that has accompanied a grim stalemate in negotiations over Palestinian self-rule.

In another exchange of fire Wednesday at the Erez crossing at the Gaza Strip border, Israeli soldiers wounded four Palestinians, including two police officers, after reporting that the Palestinians had shot at an Israeli position.

Nine Palestinians have been killed since Jan. 1 in clashes with the Israeli army. In each case, the army has accused the Palestinians of firing first.

Israel Radio and Arab sources said the victims in the West Bank shooting, whose names were not available, were wanted militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group opposed to the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The undercover Israeli troops stopped them as they were driving a stolen car in the village of Beit Likiya, about 12 miles northwest of Jerusalem, and shouted for them to surrender, the sources said. The Palestinians reportedly fired one shot, and the troops responded by riddling the car with bullets.

Meanwhile, bulldozers began clearing a Jewish settlement site Wednesday in the occupied West Bank south of Jerusalem, moving fast on a government compromise aimed at saving the peace talks.

Witnesses said workers broke ground for about 250 housing units on a hillside tract next to another hill where Israeli troops and protesters clashed last week over plans to build on what Arab villagers said was their land.

On Monday, the Israeli government prevented work on the first site for 500 apartments between the village of El Khader and the Jewish settlement of Efrat, but it authorized work closer to Efrat.