The photo of a Palestinian woman cradling the body of her 5-year-old niece in the Gaza Strip was awarded at the World Press Photo of the Year 2024 (“World Press Photo of the Year”, in free translation). The announcement was made this Thursday (18).
The image was captured by Mohammed Salem, from the Reuters agency, on October 17, 2023, at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where families were looking for relatives killed during Israeli bombings in the Palestinian territory.
Salem's winning image depicts 36-year-old Inas Abu Maamar, sobbing as she holds Saly's body, covered by a sheet, in the hospital's morgue.
Salem, a 39-year-old Palestinian, has worked for Reuters since 2003. He also won a prize in the 2010 World Press Photo contest.
“Mohammed received the news of his WPP award with humility, saying that this is not a photo to celebrate, but that he appreciates his recognition and the opportunity to publish it for a wider audience,” highlighted the global photo and video editor Reuters' Rickey Rogers at a ceremony in Amsterdam.
“He hopes that, with this award, the world will become even more aware of the human impact of war, especially on children,” said Rogers, in front of the photo in the Nieuwe Kerk, in the Dutch capital.
In announcing its annual awards, the Amsterdam-based World Press Photo Foundation stressed that it is important to recognize the dangers faced by journalists covering conflicts.
According to the foundation, 99 journalists and press workers have been killed covering the war between Israel and Hamas since the armed group attacked southern Israel on October 7 and Israel responded by launching a military offensive in Gaza.
“The work of press and documentary photographers around the world is often carried out at high risk,” highlighted Joumana El Zein Khoury, the organization’s executive director.
Recalling that, last year, the number of journalists killed reached an almost record level, she added that “it is important to recognize the trauma they suffer to show the world the humanitarian impact of war”.
The jury said the winning image of Salem 2024 was “composed with care and respect, offering at once a metaphorical and literal glimpse of unimaginable loss.”
“I felt like the photo sums up the broader sense of what was happening in the Gaza Strip,” Salem commented when the image was first published in November.
“People were confused, running from place to place, anxious to know the fate of their loved ones, and this woman caught my attention because she was holding the girl's body and refusing to let go,” he added.
Salem's wife had given birth to their son days before he took the photo.
Fiona Shields, jury member and head of photography at Guardian News & Media, said the photograph was “deeply moving”.
The jury selected the winning photos from 61,062 entries from 3,851 photographers from 130 countries.
Source: CNN Brasil
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