Palestinian journalist Hind Khoudary, right, and Anadolu Agency photographer Ali Jadallah speak with a colleague inside a tent at a makeshift camp for displaced people in front of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, after it was hit by Israel bombardment on March 31. Photo by Getty Images

By Arno Rosenfeld May 6, 2024

The Pulitzer Prize committee awarded a “special citation” to journalists covering the war in Gaza, scores of whom have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel.

“The board recognizes the courageous work of journalists and media workers covering the war in Gaza under horrific conditions. An extraordinary number of journalists have died in the effort to tell the stories of Palestinians aid workers in Gaza,” Marjorie Miller, the prize administrator, said Monday. “We mark the loss of invaluable records of the human experience.”

Miller said the committee also noted the death of poets and writers in Gaza. She added that the committee had also awarded special citations in previous years to journalists covering the wars in Ukraine and Afghanistan.

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The Committee to Protect Journalists has tracked the death of 92 Palestinian journalists during the course of the war. The CPJ and human rights organizations have blamed Israel for failing to take precautions against killing journalists and other civilians in Gaza.

Both The New York Times and Reuters won Pulitzer Prize awards for their news coverage of Oct. 7 and the Gaza war.

The Times won the international reporting award, while Reuters received the prize for news photography. Marjorie Miller, the prize administrator, described the Times coverage as “wide-ranging and revelatory.”

Both outlets have faced harsh criticism from opposite sides of the political spectrum for how they covered the terrorist attack and the subsequent war. The Times has been embroiled in controversy over its coverage of sexual assault by Hamas fighters on Oct. 7, which spurred an internal investigation.

The Times has also faced protests by an organization called Writers Against the War on Gaza who believe that the news outlet has been too supportive of the Israeli position in the conflict.

Reuters came under fire from the Israeli government and a pro-Israel media watchdog in November, with both claiming that freelancers working for Reuters were able to document the attack because they had advance knowledge of the planned violence. The news organization denied the claim.

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy by Nathan Thrall, which documents the experience of a Palestinian father whose 5-year-old son was killed in a bus crash in the city, won the prize for general nonfiction.

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