Israeli settler on Wednesday murdered four Palestinian laborers outside a Jewish settlement, near Ramallah in the central West Bank.

An Israeli police spokesman said a Jewish gunman opened fire in mid-afternoon on a group of Palestinians near the colony of Shilo.

The spokesman said the terrorist snatched the weapon of a security guard in the industrial zone in the vicinity of the settlement.

The terrorist was later arrested by security forces.

"It appears that an Israeli who resides locally grabbed a gun from a security man at the Shilo industrial zone and opened fire on Palestinians, who may have been workers or passersby," said the police spokesman, alluding to the settler.

Palestinian sources said two Jewish terrorists took part in the shooting, including the security guard.

"According to eyewitness testimonies, the terrorists were two, not one," Raed Houtari, an official at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Ramallah told PIC.

He said the Israeli army refused to allow a Red Crescent ambulance to reach the site of the shooting to evacuate the wounded to hospitals in Ramallah.

This is the second attack by a Jewish terrorist on Arabs in less than a month.

Earlier this month, an Israeli army soldier-settler who had deserted the army to protest Israel's withdrawal from Gaza opened fire Arab passengers aboard a bus in the northern Israeli town of Shafa Amr, killing four and injuring others.

The terrorist was subsequently killed by survivors.

The Israeli army has said it is searching for several "dangerous" armed Jewish extremists in the West Bank.

The army said there was a great likelihood the extremists might attack Palestinian civilians to protest the Gaza withdrawal.

More to the point, the Israeli Shin Beth (Israel's chief domestic intelligence agency) has been warning that Jewish terrorists may commit atrocities against Palestinians or attack Islamic holy places, such as the Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem in an effort to thwart the "disengagement plan."

Earlier, the Palestinian Interior Ministry warned Palestinians in the West Bank to remain vigilant to forestall possible atrocities by messianic Jewish settlers upset by the withdrawal from Gaza.