British journalist hit by missile during report claims it was 'deliberate' attack

Warning: This article contains footage which some readers may find distressing and contains strong language.

The British journalist who was hit by a missile in Lebanon while reporting on the war there has claimed it was a 'deliberate' attack.

Steven Sweeney had been working for Russian state broadcaster Russia Today in Lebanon when a missile struck the bridge he was standing on and exploded.

The camera that had been filming Sweeney's report was knocked backwards and there followed a period of shouting as the blast threw up debris.

Sweeney was audibly alive and swore several times before the end of the footage, and RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said the journalist and his cameraman had been taken to hospital where they were conscious and being checked for shrapnel wounds.

Since the blast Sweeney has been filmed confirming he was 'okay', albeit 'incredibly lucky' to have sustained what appeared to be relatively minor injuries.

The below video contains strong language:

He claimed that the missile strike was 'clearly a deliberate missile strike by the Israelis attacking journalists reporting in the field', saying he believed he was 'almost certain' and '100 percent' that the missile had been on purpose.

Sweeney insisted that Israeli forces 'knew we were there' on the bridge where the missile landed, and said the bridge was 'already destroyed'.

He also added that he was wearing a 'press' jacket identifying himself as a member of the media when the missile hit.

During the call where he said this a bandage around his left arm could be seen, and other footage showed him in hospital with a piece of shrapnel being removed from his body.

Israel has been launching missile strikes on Lebanon's territory regularly, but their current war started on 2 March a few days after Israel and the US started a war with Iran by launching a series of missile strikes.

Iran retaliated, and as part of that retaliation the Iranian-backed Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah launched missile strikes on Israel, Lebanon's government condemned the strikes and declared they'd been launched without the authority of the state.

In response Israel launched strikes of its own and has since begun a ground invasion of Lebanon.

The BBC reports that Israel has been targeting bridges in the south of Lebanon, and that the Israeli military said in the hours before the strikes it would be targeting crossing points over the Litani river it claimed were being used by Hezbollah to move people and weapons.

Since 2 March hundreds of people have been killed in Lebanon and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes.