TEL AVIV, November 15, 2011 (WAFA) – The Israeli chief of staff, Benny Gantz, Tuesday warned that the Israeli army may carry out a major military offensive against the Gaza Strip if rockets keep being fired into Israel, according to the Israeli daily, Haartez.

It said that Gantz believe there is a chance for a flare-up of violence in the West Bank over Palestinian disappointment of the statehood bid at the United Nations.

Addressing the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, Gantz said that 'recent rounds of escalated violence and the injury of both lives and the daily routine of citizens of Israel's south are leading to a reality in which the IDF will have to take significant, aggressive action in the Gaza Strip.'

He said, according to Haaretz, that such a move would have to be 'initiated and orderly.'

Gantz tried to justify the relative calm in the West Bank following the UN September bid in comparison to overstated Israeli warning of outbreak of violence by claiming that 'September isn't a date, it's a process.'

T.R./F.R.