GAZA CITY, Jan 9: Israel rejected a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Friday and warplanes and tanks pounded the Palestinian enclave.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert dismissed Thursday’s binding Security Council resolution demanding an “immediate and durable” ceasefire in the two-week-old war as “unworkable”.

Israel said Hamas fighters had fired at least 30 rockets into its territory on Friday. No casualties were reported.

Medics in Gaza said the Palestinian death toll had risen to 784. Ten Israeli soldiers have been killed, as well as three civilians hit by Hamas cross-border rocket fire.

Hamas officials in Gaza say they are weighing the UN resolution, but have voiced irritation they were not consulted. The group said it had sent three of its leaders from Gaza to Cairo to discuss a separate Egyptian ceasefire proposal, but diplomats said Israel and Egypt were far apart on the plan.

A senior Hamas official said the Islamist movement would not accept any ceasefire with Israel that does not end the blockade of Gaza.

Mussa Abu Marzuk, the Damascus-based deputy head of the powerful Hamas politburo, also said that Israel must end its two-week long onslaught on the Gaza Strip and withdraw its troops from the Hamas-ruled territory.

Israel’s security cabinet debated for the second time in three days whether to send in reservists for a push into the Gaza Strip’s towns and cities. There was no word on the outcome. Mark Regev, Olmert’s spokesman, declined to say whether the ministers had decided to expand the ground operation.

The United States, which abstained in the UN vote, offered further public support for Israel’s military goals.

“This situation will not improve until Hamas stops lobbing rockets into Israel,” White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

He also said President George W. Bush had voiced his concern to Olmert about the humanitarian situation and the loss of civilian lives during the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s air force said it hit more than 50 targets overnight. As fighting on the ground went on through the day, Palestinian medics counted at least 19 dead, including civilians.

With the Palestinian civilian death toll already in the hundreds, Israeli actions have drawn outraged denunciations from the Red Cross, UN agencies and Arab and European governments.

A UN agency said in a report that 30 Palestinians were killed on Monday, a day after the Israeli army herded dozens of civilians into a house which was later hit by shells. An Israeli military spokesman denied that account.

“The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) did not mass people into any specific building,” Major Jacob Dallal said, adding that the military had not hit a building in the area on Monday.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged independent investigations into this and other incidents, saying they “display elements of what could constitute war crimes”.

UN aid workers plan to resume their movements in Gaza as soon as possible after receiving Israeli assurances that they are not being targeted, a UN spokeswoman said in New York.

CEASEFIRE: An Israeli official said talks with Egypt over a ceasefire proposal would continue, but he did not say when. The Egyptian initiative, also sponsored by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, may be in trouble, however.