Louisa Loveluck, a reporter for The Washington Post who has faced scrutiny over factual errors in her reporting about the war in the Gaza Strip following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, blasted Israeli military operations on Monday after the paper’s coverage was named as a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
“Two million civilians are trapped there through no fault of their own,” Loveluck said on Monday in virtual remarks to the Post newsroom. “The life they lead there is a nightmare. The level of suffering is so grave that we have often struggled to find the words.”
Loveluck, who is based in London and listed among several Post journalists in the Pulitzer announcement, condemned actions by the Israel Defense Forces, according to a recording of her comments obtained by Jewish Insider.
Saying “individual stories are lost in the deluge,” Loveluck pointed to one that examined the circumstances surrounding the death of Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old girl allegedly killed by Israel while she and her relatives tried to escape the violence in Gaza City, the Insider reported.
“The Israeli military maintains to this day that it was not there, it was not responsible,” Loveluck said, urging “anyone who can bear it to read her story.”
Loveluck also referred to Hamas casualty figures that do not distinguish between civilians and terrorists, something critics say the Post regularly fails to acknowledge.
“More than 50,000 people have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza in just 18 months,” she said. “For the last two, there’s been a total block on all food and aid into the enclave. The lives of 2 million Palestinians are in the balance.”
“Doing this work is not easy, but it has always been the right thing to do,” Loveluck said.
An anonymous Post journalist told Jewish Insider that Loveluck didn’t “mention Hamas or the hostages once” during her remarks.
The journalist told the Insider that Loveluck’s oversight, “really exemplifies the Post’s coverage of the war: ignoring Hamas’ actions—so readers don’t understand why Israel is fighting in Gaza at all.”
Loveluck has been called out for serious errors in her reporting on the conflict. One required an editor’s note to correct a front-page story about Palestinian Arab infants born in the West Bank and allegedly separated from their parents during the war.
“The lengthy editor’s note, which had been quietly added to the story last year following a weeks-long delay, listed multiple inaccuracies undermining the story’s core claim that Palestinian mothers were required by the Israeli government to return to Gaza when their travel permits expired,” the Jewish Insider reported.
Two other articles co-written by Loveluck also drew major corrections last year.
Loveluck received an award in April—the inaugural Shireen Abu Akleh Award, named after a journalist mistakenly killed by Israeli soldiers in 2022—from the Overseas Press Club for the Post’s reporting on Gaza.