NYT awarded Pulitzer for Oct. 7 Al-Aqsa Flood coverage at Columbia University today

https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2024

International Reporting: Staff of The New York Times

For its wide-ranging and revelatory coverage of Hamas’ lethal attack in southern Israel on October 7, Israel’s intelligence failures and the Israeli military’s sweeping, deadly response in Gaza.

Context:

The Intercept: “Between the Hammer and the Anvil” The Story Behind the New York Times October 7 Exposé

Israel promised it had extraordinary amounts of eyewitness testimony. “Investigators have gathered ‘tens of thousands’ of testimonies of sexual violence committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, according to the Israeli police, including at the site of a music festival that was attacked,” Schwartz, Gettleman, and Stella reported on December 4. Those testimonies never materialized.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” said Abdush’s sister, that in a short timespan “they raped her, slaughtered her, and burned her?” Speaking about the rape allegation, her brother-in-law said: “The media invented it.”

“There is nothing,” Schwartz said she was told. “There was no collection of evidence from the scene.”

Vanity Fair: New York Times Launches Leak Investigation Over Report on Its Israel-Gaza Coverage Management has questioned staffers, including Daily producers, after The Intercept revealed internal debate over a yet-to-air episode on Hamas weaponizing sexual violence. Such a probe is highly unusual, say staffers, one of whom dubbed it a “witch hunt.”