United Nations, Ramadan 13, 1435, Jul 10, 2014, SPA -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that it is urgent to avoid another Israeli-Palestinian war that could spill into the broader region and called on both sides to agree to a cease-fire. The U.N. chief said the threat of an Israeli ground offense and “an all-out escalation” is preventable only if Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, stops firing rockets into Israel. Ban called for “bold thinking and creative ideas” and urged the international community to accelerate efforts to immediately halt the violence. “Now is not a time for further incitement or vengeance,” he said. “We must not let spoilers prevail. We must keep the situation from getting any further out of control.” “Any further spiral of violence could have alarming unforeseen consequences,” the secretary-general warned. “Gaza, and the region as a whole, cannot afford another full-blown war and another fault line. The potential negative spillover elsewhere in the West Bank is also unpredictable in an already tenuous and combustible situation.” --SPA 20:57 LOCAL TIME 17:57 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w