Picture of Gaza boy who lost both arms in Israeli strike wins 2025 World Press Photo of the year
— A portrait of a young Palestinian boy who lost both arms as a result of an
Israeli attack in Gaza
was honored Thursday as
World Press Photo of the year
.
The photo, taken by Qatar-based Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times shows 9-year-old Mahmoud Ajjour with his arms missing just below each shoulder.
"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 said in a statement released by the World Press Photo organization.
The winner of the 68th edition of the prestigious photojournalism contest was selected from 59,320 entries submitted by 3,778 photographers from 141 countries.
"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 World Press Photo Executive Director Joumana El Zein Khoury.
In a statement, the organization said that Ajjour was injured while fleeing an Israeli attack in March 2024.
"After he turned back to urge his family onward, an explosion severed one of his arms and mutilated the other," according to the World Press Photo citation.
"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," said jury chair Lucy Conticello, who is Director of Photography for French newspaper Le Monde's weekend magazine.
Winning photographer Abu Elouf was evacuated from Gaza in December 2023 and she now lives in the same apartment complex as Ajjour in Qatar's capital, Doha.
Israel launched its devastating war in Gaza in response to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack, in which thousands of militants stormed into southern Israel from Gaza, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza says more than
51,000 Palestinians have been killed
in the Israeli offensive. It does not differentiate between civilians and militants, but says over half of the dead have been women and children, including at least 876 infants under 1. It says over 116,000 people have been wounded.
Israel blames Hamas for the heavy civilian toll, accusing the U.S.- and Israeli designated terrorist organization of carrying out attacks and other military activities from within residential areas and civilian buildings.
Competition organizers also named two World Press Photo finalists whose work highlighted the issues of migration and climate change.
A photo by John Moore for Getty Images shows Chinese migrants warming themselves up after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border at night, and a picture by Musuk Nolte for Panos Pictures, Bertha Foundation, shows a young man carrying food across a dried up river bed in Brazil's Amazon basin region.
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