It’s been a year since Hamas attacked Israel, in a vicious and sometimes sadistic assault. The murder of innocent civilians sparked a severe and sustained counter strike by Israel on the Gaza Strip, which is struggling with mass deaths and famine.

We don’t know how, or when, this war, which recently spread to Lebanon, will end. Israel is now locked in a battle against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist group in Lebanon's south, while Iran itself has twice launched missile attacks on Israel.

But what has this conflict done to the long-term prospect of peace in the Middle East? Is it as catastrophic a set-back as the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin?

Foreign affairs and national security correspondent, Matthew Knott, travelled to Israel and the West Bank, in October last year. And he’s just returned to the region.

Today, he joins me to discuss how this war has impacted some of the most bitterly divided groups in the world.