JERUSALEM, Dec. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Five Israel Defense Forces (IDF)soldiers were lightly wounded Thursday morning when a Palestinian Qassam rocket hit an army base south of Ashkelon in southern Israel, Israel Radio reported.

    The radio said that the five Israeli soldiers were injured by shrapnel and were transferred to hospital for treatment.

    It was the second rocket strike in the day. Earlier another Qassam rocket was landed south of Ashkelon, hitting an open area near the city's industrial zone.

    Saraya al-Quds, armed wing of the Islamic Jihad (Holy War), has claimed responsibility for the rocket attack at Ashkelon.

    Israel has responded immediately by firing artillery shells atthe northern and eastern Gaza Strip, said the Israeli military.

    Meanwhile, IDF troops killed three Palestinian militants in araid in the West Bank city of Nablus early Thursday morning,according to Palestinian security sources.

    Two of the militants are members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the third is a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of the ruling Fatah movement.

    The PFLP is a small radical faction inside the major umbrella political group of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

    Israel has intensified its arrests and raids againstPalestinian militants in the West Bank since a suicide bomber killed five Israelis in the northern Israeli city Netanya on Dec.5. Enditem