A poignant image of a young Palestinian boy who lost both arms in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City has been named Press Photo of the Year.
Mahmoud Ajjour lost both arms in an Israeli airstrike. His portrait was taken by Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times.
Abu Elouf, who is also from Gaza, met nine-year-old Ajjour three months after an Israeli explosion severed one of his arms and mutilated the other.
Ajjour and his family were evacuated to Doha, Qatar, where Abu Elouf is based, to receive medical treatment.
Since her evacuation from Gaza in December 2023, Abu Elouf has been documenting the experiences of individuals like Mahmoud who sought medical treatment abroad.
“One of the most difficult things Mahmoud’s mother explained to me was how, when Mahmoud first came to the realization that his arms were amputated, the first sentence he said to her was, ‘How will I be able to hug you?’” Abu Elouf wrote in her notes on the image, which was taken for and published in The New York Times.
“This is a quiet photo that speaks loudly. It tells the story of one boy, but also of a wider war that will have an impact for generations,” said Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director of World Press Photo, in a press statement.
The jury observed three central themes — conflict, migration, and climate change — in the entries this year, says Lucy Conticello, director of photography for Le Monde’s M magazine and one of the judges.
“Another way of seeing them is as stories of resilience, family, and community,” Conticello said in a press statement.
The contrast in the winning photo — light and dark, beauty and pain — captured the attention of the judges, she added.
The winning photo was selected from nearly 60,000 entries submitted by 3,778 photographers across more than 140 countries.
