A portrait of Mahmoud Ajjour, who misplaced each of his arms in an Israeli assault in Gaza, received the World Press Photograph of the Yr award. (© Samar Abu Elouf for the New York Occasions, all pictures courtesy World Press Photograph)
Earlier than his tenth birthday, Mahmoud Ajjour misplaced each of his arms after an Israeli explosion tore off one in every of his fingers and brought about extreme accidents to the opposite. Ajjour was fleeing his house in Gaza with members of the family final March when he was struck; he informed his household to go on with out him.
Months later, Gazan journalist Samar Abu Elouf photographed Ajjour in Qatar, the place he fled for medical remedy. One among Eluof’s portraits of the nine-year-old was acknowledged with the 2025 World Press Photograph of the Yr award, as introduced in the present day, April 17.
Whereas on task for a New York Occasions story on Gazans receiving medical remedy in Qatar, Elouf photographed Ajjour partially illuminated by a beam of daylight that reveals each the kid’s unyielding gaze and the sheer devastation of his accidents. The self-taught photojournalist left Gaza in December 2023 and lives in the identical condo complicated as Ajjour.
The hanging {photograph} supplies a glimpse into the fact confronted by 1000’s of different kids in Gaza, which is house to the best variety of little one amputees wherever on this planet, in response to the United Nations Kids’s Fund (UNICEF).
“This is a quiet photo that speaks loudly,” World Press Photograph Basis Government Director Joumana El Zein Khoury mentioned in an announcement. “It tells the story of one boy, but also of a widerwar that will have an impact for generations.”
“Droughts in the Amazon,” {a photograph} of a younger man in Brazil crossing a drought-stricken river mattress within the Brazilian state of Amazonas, was chosen as a runner-up. (© Musuk Nolte, Panos Photos, Bertha Basis)
Human rights organizations, together with Amnesty Worldwide and a UN Particular Committee, characterize Israel’s assaults on Gaza as genocide. In keeping with the Committee to Shield Journalists, extra members of the media have been killed since Israel’s assaults on Gaza started in October 2023 than in every other battle the group has documented.
“This young boy’s life deserves to be understood, and this picture does what great photojournalism can do: provide a layered entry point into a complex story and the incentive to prolong one’s encounter with that story,” World Press Photograph International Jury Chair Lucy Conticello mentioned in a press launch.
“Night Crossing,” capturing Chinese language migrants at america border with Mexico, was a finalist for the award. (© John Moore/Getty Photographs)
Samar Abu Elouf is the second Palestinian photojournalist to win the World Press Photograph’s high award since October 2023. Final April, the prize went to Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem, who captured a Gazan girl clutching the small physique bag that held the physique of her five-year-old niece.
This 12 months, over 59,000 pictures taken by photographers from 141 nations had been thought of for the coveted annual award. The 2 runners-up for World Photograph of the Yr captured Chinese language immigrants crossing the United States-Mexico border and a person standing in a drought-stricken riverbed within the Amazon, respectively. The competition’s regional winners embody snippets of life amid political turmoil: a groom in Sudan on a cellular phone, a portrait of a trans man within the Netherlands revealing top-surgery scars, and pictures of a Ukrainian little one affected by panic assaults.
Elouf will obtain a €10,000 (~$11,300) money prize and a Fujifilm digital camera. The picture will tour in a year-long world exhibition with different regional winners and finalists in North America, South America, Europe, and Australia.
