´Stop fighting, start talking´ Ban tells Israel, Palestinians

TEL AVIV: UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged Israel and the Palestinians to stop the ongoing bloodshed in Gaza and begin negotiating.

"My message is the same for Israelis and Palestinians: Stop fighting, start talking and take on the root causes of the conflict so that we are not at the same situation in the next six months or a year," he said at a news conference in Tel Aviv.