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's photo of the year. The image, 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. The winner of the 68th edition of the prestigious photojournalism contest was selected from nearly 60,000 entries submitted by 3,778 photographers from 141 countries, per the AP. "This is a quiet photo that speaks loudly," said Joumana El Zein Khoury, the World Press Photo Foundation's executive director. "It tells the story of one boy, but also of a wider war that will have an impact for generations."
In a statement, the organization said that Mahmoud 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's also the photo chief for French newspaper Le Monde's weekend magazine.
Winning photographer Abu Elouf was evacuated from Gaza in December 2023 and now lives in the same apartment complex as Ajjour in the Qatari capital of Doha. "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 World Press Photo.
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Competition organizers 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, while a picture by Musuk Nolte for Panos Pictures, Bertha Foundation, depicts a young man carrying food across a dried-up riverbed in Brazil's Amazon basin region.
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