Overview

• The award-winning photograph, taken by Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times, captures Mahmoud Ajjour, a nine-year-old Palestinian boy who lost both arms in an Israeli attack on Gaza in March 2024.
• The image was selected from over 59,000 entries submitted by 3,778 photographers from 141 countries in the 68th edition of the World Press Photo contest.
• Ajjour, now undergoing rehabilitation in Doha, Qatar, is learning to use his feet for daily tasks and dreams of receiving prosthetics to lead a more typical childhood.
• The jury praised the photograph’s strong composition and emotional depth, describing it as a powerful representation of individual suffering and the generational impact of war.
• Runner-up images addressed global issues of migration and climate change, including depictions of Chinese migrants at the U.S.–Mexico border and drought-stricken regions of the Amazon.