Wounded Gaza child's image wins 2025 World Press Photo award
An image of a wounded Palestinian child, taken by Palestinian journalist Samar Abu Elouf, has won the top prize at the 2025 World Press Photo awards
Gaza: An image of a wounded Palestinian child, taken by Palestinian journalist Samar Abu Elouf, has won the top prize at the 2025 World Press Photo awards.
The award winning photograph captures the haunting aftermath of Israel’s war on Gaza’s children — through the eyes of a 9-year-old boy who lost both arms in an airstrike.
Abu Elouf, herself a survivor of the genocide, took the photo in Doha, where the child, Mahmoud Ajjour, is now recovering.
"Silent but deeply expressive image"
The image, taken for The New York Times, shows Mahmoud with sunken cheeks, a pale face, and no arms — a visual record of the genocide unfolding in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
“This is a silent but deeply expressive image,” said Joumana El Zein Khoury, Executive Director of World Press Photo. “It tells one boy’s story, but also that of a brutal war that will scar generations.”
Mahmoud was injured in March 2024 during an Israeli bombing in Gaza City. Since then, over 51,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 116,000 wounded, most of them women and children.
When Mahmoud woke up in a hospital bed without his arms, his first words were:
“How will I hug you now?” — a question he asked his mother.
That moment stayed with Abu Elouf.
“I cried for days after photographing him,” she said. “It was not just an image. It was the pain of a homeland. It was my pain too.”
Elouf forced to leave Gaza
Abu Elouf fled Gaza in October 2023 with her four children after surviving repeated Israeli bombings. She now lives in Qatar, in the same residential compound as Mahmoud. From there, she continues to document the lives of wounded Palestinians who were lucky to get medically evacuated from Gaza.
Her lens has captured women, children, and entire families whose lives were shattered. But this image of Mahmoud — a child robbed of his future — spoke louder than words.
“Every photo I take is a piece of my heart,” she said. “Mahmoud and the others are not just subjects — they are part of my story.”
Mahmoud now uses his feet to scroll on a phone, type messages, and open doors. He still needs help eating, dressing, and performing daily tasks. His dream is simple: to receive prosthetic arms and go back to being a normal child.
The jury praised the image for its emotional power and “strong composition and use of light,” calling it a photograph that “forces us to ask hard questions — about justice, about childhood, about the future.”
The winning image was selected from 59,320 entries by 3,778 photojournalists. It was one of 42 photos chosen this year.
"Israel’s war on Gaza’s children"
Other winners included images of drought in the Amazon and migrants crossing into the U.S. — but Samar Abu Elouf’s photo stood out for a different reason: It gave a face to Israel’s war on Gaza’s children.
“I’ve always dreamed of taking the photo that would end this war,” Abu Elouf said. “If our images can’t stop the killing, then what is the value of a photograph?”
She is no stranger to global recognition. In 2024, she received the International Press Freedom Award from Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. Her work has appeared in Reuters, The New Yorker, and The New York Times.
But this award is deeply personal.
“I am from Gaza,” she said. “This is my face. This is my grief.”
She added, “This win means the world — not because of the prize, but because the message got through.”
According to World Press Photo, more than 2,100 media outlets around the globe have published the image.
Abu Elouf says the photo will never stop hurting her. “Every time I look at it, the joy of winning fades. But the real victory is that the world now knows Mahmoud — and what happened to him.”
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