An obsessive portrait of a Palestinian young Gaza boy who lost his two arms in an Israeli strike was appointed photo of the world press of the year for 2025.
Mahmoud Ajjour, 9, was fleeing an Israeli attack in Gaza with his family when he turned to urge his loved ones to move forward, the organization of world press photos said in a press release accompanying the photo taken by the Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf.
Then he was struck in an explosion, added non-profit based in the Netherlands.
One of Ajjour’s arms was completely cut, while the other was seriously injured and finally had to be amputated.
“One of the most difficult things that Mahmoud’s mother explained to me was how Mahmoud realized for the first time that his arms were amputated,” Abu Elouf said in the press release of the World Press Photos. “The first sentence he said to him was:” How can I kiss you? “”
Ajjour was evacuated from Gaza for treatment in the capital of Qatar, Doha, where Abu Elouf took his portrait for the New York Times. The photographer also fled in town.
Ajjour is one of the hundreds of children in Gaza to have lost at least one member during the war, who saw more than 51,000 people killed since October 7, 2023 according to the Ministry of Health in the enclave managed by Hamas.
UNICEF warned in December that more than 1,000 children in Gaza had seen one or both legs amputated only since October 7, 2023, when Israel began its military campaign in the enclave after the terrorist attacks led by Hamas in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 took hostage, marking a major climbing in a conflict of decade.
“These are incredible figures,” said Dr. Ahmed Al-Fara, head of the pediatric department of Nasser Hospital in Southern Gaza, Khan Younis in NBC News on the ground in an interview earlier this month, noting that thousands of children were also killed and more have been left without one or both parents.
Al-Fara said he could not understand “the silence of the world” in the midst of the generalized devastation in Gaza, where a large part of the enclave was destroyed.
Many operations that Gaza’s children had to undergo were carried out without anesthesia, according to UNICEF, with the enclave health system also struck by the Israeli offensive, which he restarted last month after a break in the fighting.
Discussions for a permanent end of the fights were to start after the first phase of the ceasefire agreement – in which Hamas released 25 living hostages and the bodies of eight in exchange for 1,800 Palestinian prisoners and detainees – ended on March 1.
But the Israeli forces have broken the fragile truce and have since launched air strikes on the enclave while using military operations on the ground.
Israel also applied the entry of medical supplies, as well as food, water and other vital aid during a blockade of more than a month of the enclave.
The efforts to guarantee a more permanent cease-fire and guarantee the release of the hostages held in Gaza have so far not given any results.
In the meantime, Mahmoud learns to live without his arms, said the photo declaration of the world press, adding that he needs support for most daily activities, including eating and dressing.
He also learns to use his feet to do things like opening doors, writing and playing games on his phone, he said, adding that he hopes to receive prosthetic members-a dream now shared by a growing number of children in Gaza.
