Portrait Of Palestinian Boy Who Lost Arms Wins World Press Photo Of The Year 2025
The World Press Photo Foundation recently named a portrait of a young Palestinian boy who lost both arms as a result of an Israeli attack in Gaza as the World Press Photo of the year.
The photo featured in The New York Times shows a nine-year-old boy, Mahmoud Ajjour, with his arms cut from each shoulder, capturing the helplessness of the innocent victims in the war-ravaged strip for one and a half years.
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The photo was taken by Qatar-based Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf for the US-based newspaper. Elouf is now living in Qatar, after being evacuated from Gaza in late 2023. She had captured several lives wounded by the horrific bombing campaigns by Israel.
World Press Photo executive director Joumana El Zein Khoury says the photo is quiet and speaks loudly, which tells the story of one boy but also showcases the wider war and its impact for generations.
The #WPPh2025 Photo of the Year is ‘Mahmoud Ajjour, Aged Nine’ by @samarabuelouf, for @nytimes. The jury was moved by this portrait of a Palestinian boy which speaks to the devastating long-term costs of war on civilians. Read more: https://t.co/KHmkUjt2Rj pic.twitter.com/QP3lqEBWaR
— World Press Photo (@WorldPressPhoto) April 17, 2025
The image was picked from around 59,320 entries submitted by 3,778 photographers from 141 countries. In a statement released by the World Press Photo organization, Elouf says the most difficult thing for him was what the boy said to his mother when he first came to the knowledge that his arms were amputated. The first sentence was “How will I be able to hug you?”
The victim, Ajjour, was injured while fleeing an Israeli attack in March 2024, causing an explosion to severe his arms. One of the jury chairs of the contest, Lucy Conticello, who is also Director of Photography for French newspaper Le Monde’s weekend magazine, said that the young boy’s life deserves to be understood.
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“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,” he observed.
However, the photo has been honoured as the winner of the 68th edition of the prestigious photojournalism contest on Thursday, April 17. Over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed across Gaza since the start of the latest Israeli aggression in October 2023, after the Gaza military group Hamas attacked Israel, killing around 12,00. The relentless bombing and ground offensives continue unabated, with reports of daily causalities still counting.
