AMSTERDAM: A haun­ting portrait of a nine-year-old Palestinian boy who lost both arms during an Israeli attack on Gaza City won the 2025 World Press Photo of the Year Award on Thursday.

The picture, by Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times, depicts Mahmoud Ajjour, evacuated to Doha after an explosion severed one arm and mutilated the other last year.

“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’?” said Elouf.

The photographer is also from Gaza and was herself evacuated in December 2023. She now portrays badly wounded Palestini­ans based in Doha.

“Working on this project was a special but painful experience. Thro­ugh it, I sought to show the difficulties of the lives of wounded Palesti­nians outside of Gaza,” she told reporters.

“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 Joumana El Zein Khoury, World Press Photo Executive Director.

The jury praised the photo’s “strong composition and attention to light” and its thought-provoking subject-matter, especially questions raised over Mahmoud’s future. The boy is now learning to play games on his phone, write, and open doors with his feet, the jury said.

“Palestinian children have paid a heavy price for the horrors they have experienced, and Mahmoud is just one of those children,” said the photographer.

“Mahmoud’s dream is simple: he wants to get prosthetics and live his life as any other child,” said the World Press Photo organisers in a statement.

The jury also selected two photos for the runner-up prize.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2025