Overview

• The winning portrait, taken for The New York Times, shows Mahmoud Ajjour, who lost both arms in a 2024 Israeli attack on Gaza City while fleeing with his family.
• Photographer Samar Abu Elouf, also from Gaza, was evacuated to Doha in late 2023 and now documents the lives of wounded Palestinians undergoing treatment abroad.
• The image was selected from over 59,000 entries in the 68th edition of the World Press Photo Contest, which emphasizes local voices in photojournalism.
• Ajjour, currently in Doha, is learning to adapt to life without arms, using his feet for daily tasks and awaiting prosthetic limbs as part of his rehabilitation.
• The photo underscores the disproportionate impact of the conflict on children, with Gaza having the highest per-capita rate of child amputees globally, according to UN estimates.