Getting both sides talking

Hi there – Chloe here in the hot seat again today.

Many of you have been contacting the BBC over the last few days about the situation in Gaza. Today we’re going to do things a little bit differently on the programme. We’re assembling a group of Palestinians from Gaza and another from Sderot, the Israeli border town, to talk directly to each other. They’ll talk about their lives, their different and collective fears and what changes they would like to see, plus any concessions they are willing to make in the pursuit of peace.

UPDATE: In Gaza we’ll be talking to and in Sderot. Find out more about them below…

More on mixed marriages

We did a programme last week about mixed marriages, after it was revealed that Diana’s mother called her a “whore” when she found out the Princess was in a relationship with a Muslim. One of our contributors, Josh Freedman Berthoud, talked about being the product of a mixed marriage. His father is Jewish, his mother isn’t, and they split up when Josh was still young. He’s written more about this on the Guardian newspaper’s blog site ‘Comment is Free’. You can read his article here. The comments are worth a read too.

Talking to Israel and Gaza

Thousands of Palestinians have been crossing into Egypt from the Gaza Strip after  militants destroyed parts of the border wall separting them. Gazans crossed over to buy food, fuel and other supplies that have become scarce because of an Israeli blockade – aimed at stopping rocket attacks from Gaza.