diana buttu, lawyer and former spokeswoman for the palestine liberation organisation. in tel aviv, gideon levy, columnist at the israeli newspaper haaretz and author of the punishment of gaza. if i could start with diana, how common, how rare is it in modern political discourse to hear a government minister openly vowing to starve a population of food, water, electricity and fuel? diana: this is not at all new for israel. the seige has been in place for 17 years. and much longer than that, if you look at the system of closure. the problem is that israelis have gotten used to this process of dehumanizing palestinians. we heard as much yesterday when he called palestinians human animals. the fact he gets to do so with complete impunity, it is this that has led to the events of this past week, that somehow they believe that they can do whatever they want to palestinians in the history only began on saturday. discounting 56 years of military occupation, 56 years of what they saw over the course of the past 48 hours. sami: something has changed, this was a territory, gaza ha

let's get more on this with diana buttu in haifa. rmer palestinian peace negotiator. thank you so much diana forjoining us here on bbc news. let me ask you first of all, i know you are a former legal adviser for the palestinian president mahmoud abbas. i want to get your reaction to the events in last 2a hours. this i want to get your reaction to the events in last 24 hours.— i want to get your reaction to the events in last 24 hours. this is not at all surprising. _ events in last 24 hours. this is not at all surprising. we _ events in last 24 hours. this is not at all surprising. we are _ events in last 24 hours. this is not at all surprising. we are shocked l events in last 24 hours. this is notl at all surprising. we are shocked by what has happened, but not surprised. and what i mean by that is that this has been going on for palestinians daily violence, for 56 years. the occupation itself is violent. and so to somehow expect that israel was not going to pay a price for 56 years of violence is to hide your head in the sand. while