Picture of Palestinian boy who lost both arms in Gaza attack is World Press Photo of 2025
- Last updated: April 17, 2025 | 15:22
A portrait of a young Palestinian boy who lost both arms as a result of an Israeli attack in Gaza was honoured 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 realisation 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 organisation 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 attack on Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza says over 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive. It says that over half of the dead were women and children, including at least 876 infants under 1. It says over 116,000 people have been wounded.
Competition organisers also named two World Press Photo finalists that highlighted the issues of migration and climate change.
A dark photo by John Moore for Getty Images shows Chinese migrants warming themselves after crossing the US-Mexico border, and a picture by Musuk Nolte for Panos Pictures, Bertha Foundation, of a young man carrying food across a dried up river bed in Brazil's Amazon basin region.
In regional results announced earlier by the World Press Photo Foundation, The Associated Press was among winners in the Asia-Pacific and Oceania region. Photographer Jae C. Hong won in the Singles category with an image titled Korea Adoption Fraud and Noel Celis won in the Stories category for photos from the Philippines titled Four Storms, 12 Days.
Associated Press