Poignant shot from Gaza wins World Press Photo of the Year 2024
Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem won this year’s prestigious World Press Photo of the Year award with a depiction of loss in Gaza.
The heartrending photo depicts a Palestinian woman cradling the body of her young niece, Euro News reported. The photograph, taken on 17 October 2023 at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, shows 36-year-old Inas Abu Maamar holding five-year-old Saly, who was killed along with her mother and sister when an Israeli missile struck their home. Salem, 39, who is Palestinian, described this photo filed on 2 November last year, as a “powerful and sad moment that sums up the broader sense of what was happening in the Gaza Strip.”
“I felt the picture sums up the broader sense of what was happening in the Gaza Strip,” Salem said when the image was first published in November.
“People were confused, running from one place to another, anxious to know the fate of their loved ones, and this woman caught my eye as she was holding the body of the little girl and refused to let go.” The jury said Salem’s 2024 winning image was “composed with care and respect, offering at once a metaphorical and literal glimpse into unimaginable loss.”
This is not the first time Salem has been recognized for his work on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; he received a World Press Photo award more than a decade ago for another depiction of the human toll of conflict in the Gaza strip.