Israel has been condemned worldwide for the murder of three Israeli journalists

Three journalists were killed in an Israeli attack in Lebanon on Friday morning, their colleagues said. Human rights activists condemned the number of reporters who lost their lives in the region last year.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it condemned the attack “in the strongest terms” and called on the international community to “end Israel's long-standing pattern of impunity for killings of journalists.”

Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has previously denied intentionally attacking journalists.

According to CPJ, last year was the deadliest time for journalists in more than 30 years. At least 126 reporters and media workers were among the nearly 45,000 people killed in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Lebanon.

Friday was the deadliest day for journalists in Lebanon last year. At least five other reporters were killed in Israeli strikes while deployed in Lebanon, including Reuters Visuals journalist Issam Abdallah.

The strike around 3 a.m. local time hit a cluster of guesthouses housing only reporters in the southern Lebanese town of Hasbaya, killing two journalists from the town of Hasbaya Al Mayadeen TV station and a journalist Al Manar.

Muhammad Farhat, a reporter with the Lebanese channel Al JadeedHe was one of at least 18 journalists who stayed in guesthouses in Hasbaya.

There was no evacuation order from the Israeli military. Farhat told Reuters he was awakened by the sound of Israeli jets flying low overhead and heard two missiles hit nearby guesthouses before the roof of his guesthouse collapsed on him.

“The scenes were frightening. We saw our colleagues and friends dismembered, their limbs scattered everywhere, others screaming and begging us to pull them out,” Farhat later said Al JadeedTears in my eyes.

In a post about the attack on

Mazen Shaqoura, the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Middle East, told Al-Jadeed the attack was “an attack on what we hear and see.”

(Reuters)