Israeli jets and helicopters bombarded Gaza once again today and Hamas fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel as a UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire fell onto rocky ground.

The Security Council voted 14-0 - the United States took the rare decision to abstain - for a British-drafted resolution calling for an "immediate, durable and fully-respected ceasefire leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza".

A few hours later, from a hill in southern Israel overlooking the densely-populated Gas Strip, you could see and hear Israel's immediate response.

Every few minutes the air would reverberate with the crack of artillery fire. A few seconds later, another plume of white smoke would appear amid the white appartment blocks of distant Gaza City to the south.

A dozen Palestinian civilians were reported killed in air strikes overnight. The Israeli military said that militants fired at least 15 rockets into southern Israel, wounding one Israeli.

After a meeting of his security cabinet, Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, rejected the resolution as "unworkable" and said that Israel had "never agreed to let an external body decide its right to protect the security of its citizens".

“The firing of rockets this morning only goes to show that the UN decision is unworkable and will not be adhered to by the murderous Palestinian organisations,” he added.

“The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will continue to operate in order to defend the citizens of Israel and will carry out the task it was given for the operation."

The ceasefire resolution was also rejected by Hamas, the Islamic militant group which controls the Gaza Strip, despite the deaths of some 800 people during the two-week Israeli offensive.

"Even though we are the main actors on the ground in Gaza, we were not consulted about this resolution and they have not taken into account our vision and the interests of our people," one Hamas official said.

"As a result we do not feel concerned by this resolution and when the different parties apply it they will have to deal with those who are in charge on the ground."

A UN humanitarian agency today accused Israeli forces of having evacuated more than 100 civilians into a house in the suburbs of Gaza City, only to kill 30 of them in a bombardment the following day. The Israeli military said it was not aware of any such incident, but was investigating.

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