'Weak governments driving Israeli-Gaza conflict'

Weak governments on both the Israeli and Palestinian side are helping to drive the current conflict which could escalate further, James F Jeffrey, a former US ambassador to Syria, Iraq and Turkey has said.

He told BBC World News that it was going to require a very complicated set of steps to de-escalate the violence.

"Neither leader is really ready to exercise the kind of persuasive powers in negotiation with the other side that we've seen in earlier conflicts," he said.