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Osama bin Laden has called for a new jihad over the Israeli offensive in Gaza, through an audio recording posted on Islamist websites in which he questioned America's stomach for the fight.

The authenticity of the recording could not be verified immediately, but it appeared to be a typically provocative message from the al-Qaeda leader, taunting the United States as it prepares to hand the presidential baton from George W Bush to Barack Obama.

"God has bestowed us with the patience to continue the path of jihad for another seven years, and seven and seven years," bin Laden said on the tape dated in the current Islamic month. "The question is, can America continue its war with us for several more decades to come? Reports and evidence would suggest otherwise."

The tape, entitled A Call for Jihad to Stop the Aggression against Gaza, came as the reported death toll from the 19-day Israeli offensive against Hamas rose to 971. Thirteen Israelis have been killed so far.

Bin Laden last appeared in an audio tape in May and also focused on Gaza, calling on Muslims to try to help to end the blockade of the area. The al-Qaeda leader has placed growing emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in recent years and today's audio tape was accompanied by a still of bin Laden and a picture of the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest shrine.

In Gaza itself, Israeli military aircraft and helicopter gunships pounded 60 targets overnight, including rocket-launching sites, gunmen, weapons-production and storage facilities and about 35 tunnels used to smuggle weapons, the military said.

Aircraft also struck the Sheikh Radwan cemetery in Gaza City, destroying about 30 graves — some only recently dug —and scattering flesh and body parts across the graveyard.

"There was flesh on the roofs, there was small bits of intestines. My neighbour found a hand of a woman who died a long time ago, we put it all into a plastic bag," said Ahmad Abu Jarbou, a local resident.

In Egypt, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, starting a week-long trip to the region, repeated his call for an immediate halt to the fighting.

My call is [for] an immediate end to violence in Gaza, and then to the Israeli military offensive and a halt to rocket attacks by Hamas," he told reporters after meeting President Mubarak. "It is intolerable that civilians bear the brunt of this conflict."

As Israeli leaders mull an escalation of the conflict — a direct land assault on Gaza City — fears of a second front were raised this morning when three rockets fired from Lebanon slammed into northern Israel.

"Rockets fell in northern Israel without causing injuries or damage," an Israeli army spokesman said of the second in a week. "The Israeli army responded immediately by firing in the direction from where the rockets were launched."

While Israelis headed for bomb shelters, Lebanese schools shut down and many residents panicked and fled fearing an all-out conflict. Three booby-trapped rockets were discovered later in the area by the Lebanese Army and troops from Unifil, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

A malfunction in the siren alert system in Jerusalem sent a jolt through the Holy City, highlighting the frayed nerves. "It was a false alarm," a police spokesman said. "The sirens went off, we’re looking into it."

The bin Laden tape was posted on websites often used by al-Qaeda to propagate their message and the voice resembled previous messages from the al-Qaeda leader. On it, bin Laden also condemned Arab governments for preventing their people from acting to "liberate Palestine".

In his latest message, bin Laden also said: “Our brothers in Palestine, you have suffered a lot . . . the Muslims sympathise with you in what they see and hear. We, the mujahidin, sympathise with you also . . . We are with you and we will not let you down. Our fate is tied to yours in fighting the Crusader-Zionist coalition, in fighting until victory or martyrdom.”

Bin Laden has been the world's most wanted terrorist since the 9/11 attacks of September 2001 and has a $50 million bounty on his head.

President Bush admitted this week that he did not know whether bin Laden had ever come close to capture during that time, although he was "absolutely" certain that he would be caught eventually. More improbably, Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, suggested that that the Administration had a "few days left" to capture bin Laden and his deputy, the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri.

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