This month, Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf won the 2025 World Press Photo of the Year award for her image titled Mahmoud Ajjour, Aged Nine, taken last year for The New York Times.
Ajjour had both of his arms blown off by an Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip, where Israel’s ongoing genocide has now killed at least 52,365 Palestinians since October 2023. In the award-winning photograph, the boy’s head and armless torso are cast in partial shadow, his gaze nevertheless intense in its emptiness.
Speaking recently to Al Jazeera, Ajjour recalled his reaction when his mother informed him that he had lost his arms: “I started crying. I was very sad, and my mental state was very bad.” He was then forced to undergo surgery with no anaesthetic, an arrangement that has been par for the course in Gaza on account of Israel’s criminal blockade of medical supplies and all other materials necessary for human survival. “I couldn’t bear the pain, I was screaming very loud. My voice filled the hallways.” READ MORE AT AL JAZEERA ENGLISH.