World Press Photo of the Year

Portrait of Palestinian child who lost arms during Israeli attack wins World Press Photo

"How am I going to hug?" Photo of the year portrays boy who lost his arms in Gaza
The portrait shows Mahmoud Ajjour, who had one arm cut off and the other mutilated in March 2024, during an Israeli bombing
The photograph of a nine-year-old Palestinian child who lost both arms fleeing an Israeli attack in Gaza won the top prize at the World Press Photo, the world's biggest photojournalism award, this Thursday (17/4).
The image was taken by Palestinian photographer Abu Elouf and was published in the American newspaper The New York Times. The portrait shows Mahmoud Ajjour, who had one arm cut off and the other mutilated in March 2024, during an Israeli bombing in Gaza City. He was taken to Doha after the attack. "Palestinian children have paid a high price for the horrors they have suffered. Mahmoud is one of those children," said the photojournalist. Elouf was also displaced from Gaza in December 2023 and now photographs the reality of seriously injured Palestinians living in Qatar.
Check out the photo:

"One of the hardest things Mahmoud's mother explained to me was that when Mahmoud realized his arms were amputated, the first thing he said to her was: 'How can I hug you without arms?'," Elouf recalled.
The executive director of World Press Photo, Joumana El Zein Khoury, said that the photograph is silent, but it says a lot. "It tells the story of a child, but also of an even greater war that will impact future generations," she added.

According to the prize organizers, Mahmoud is learning to play on his cell phone, write and open doors with his feet. However, he wants prosthetics to "live his life like any other child."

59,320 photos from around the world were analyzed, and 42 won the main award category.
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