Two people were wounded, one moderately, by a Qassam rocket strike Sunday on a gas station near the western Negev town of Sderot.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

The moderately wounded man, a 24-year-old employee of the gas station, was hit by shrapnel throughout his body and taken to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon for treatment.

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Another man was lightly wounded in the attack, and is suffering light hearing problems. The rocket did not cause any property damage.

Later Sunday, two more Qassam rockets struck open areas in the western Negev, causing no damage or injuries.

"I was in my office and I heard the red alert, and then an explosion," said Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council Chairman Alon Schuster, whose office is only 150 meters away from where the rocket struck.

The director of the council's psychological services arrived on the scene to help treat those suffering from shock.

In response to the attacks, David Baker, an official in the Prime Minister's Office, said Sunday evening: "The Qassam rocket attacks, as well as the shooting incident in which the Israeli was seriously wounded, are precisely the kind of terror that Israel demands that the PA prevent."

"The PA must begin to take the necessary steps against such terror and Israel will be persistent in demanding this," he added.

Earlier Sunday, an Israeli security guard for a fuel truck was seriously wounded in a shooting attack on a vehicle west of the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Palestinians reported hearing an explosion in northern Gaza shortly after the rocket attack.

A Palestinian security source in Gaza told Reuters the blast appeared to be the result of Israeli tank, artillery or air fire at gunmen, but there were no reported injuries.

But an Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman denied Israel had opened fire in Gaza and said the explosion appeared to have been caused by a rocket aimed at Israel that had misfired.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, claimed resposibility for the West Bank shooting, according to media reports.

The Palestinian Maan news agency said a caller from the Brigades claimed responsibility for the shooting.

According to the initial investigation, the guard was shot by a Palestinian in a passing car some 600 meters from the Naalin roadblock.

The guard apparently reached the roadblock under his own power despite his wounds. He was evacuated to Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer with serious head and leg wounds.

Magen David Adom officials said he had been hit twice in the head. The driver of the truck was not wounded, the radio.

The perpetrators of the attack fled the scene. Israel Defense Forces troops and police were searching for them, security officials said.

Israeli vehicles traveling in the West Bank often come under attack from Palestinian gunmen.

Medics: 3 children hurt by IDF fire in Jenin

Also Sunday, Palestinian medics said that IDF troops fired rubber bullets toward stone throwers in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, wounding three children, one of them in the eye, and a youth.

The stone-throwing began when IDF jeeps entered the camp in an attempt to arrest a suspected militant, witnesses said. The troops opened fire in response, wounding children ages 10, 12 and 13, the medics said.

The thirteen-year-old girl was shot in the eye, they said. An 18-year-old youth was also hurt, they said.

The army confirmed that rubber-coated steel bullets were used to disperse a demonstration of stone throwers.

In addition, troops had been fired at and a bomb hurled at them during the Jenin arrest operation, the IDF said.