Deadly Israeli strike on journalists in Lebanon prompts global condemnation

Three journalists were killed in Lebanon by an Israeli strike on Friday morning, drawing condemnation from rights advocates about the number of reporters who have lost their lives in the region over the past year.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it "strongly condemned" the attack, urging the international community to "stop Israel's long-standing pattern of impunity in journalist killings".

The strike around 3am local time hit a collection of guesthouses housing only reporters in the southern Lebanese town of Hasbaya, killing two journalists from the Al Mayadeen television network and one journalist from Al Manar.

Muhammad Farhat, a reporter with Lebanese broadcaster Al Jadeed, was one of at least 18 journalists staying at the guesthouses in Hasbaya.

There was no evacuation order by Israel's military. Farhat told Reuters he was woken up by the sound of Israeli jets flying low overhead and heard two missiles strike nearby guesthouses before the roof of his guesthouse collapsed on him.

"The scenes were terrifying. We saw our colleagues and friends cut up, their limbs strewn all over, others were screaming and begging us to pull them out," Farhat said later on Al Jadeed, tears in his eyes.

The Israeli military said it had received reports that journalists had been hit several hours after its forces had attacked what it described as a Hezbollah military structure in Hasbaya, adding that the incident was under review.

Mazen Shaqoura, the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for the Middle East, told Al Jadeed the strike represented "a targeting of what we hear and what we see".