Palestinian journalist Salem wins World Press Photo of the Year

Palestinian Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem won the prestigious 2024 World Press Photo of the Year award on Thursday for his image of a Palestinian woman embracing the body of a child wrapped in white cloth – a quiet moment of intense grief.

The woman is Inas Abu Maamar, 36, and the body she was holding in the photo was that of her 5-year-old niece, Saly.

The picture was taken in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 17 at the Nasser Hospital morgue, where families were searching for relatives killed during the Israeli bombing of the Palestinian enclave.

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."

"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. The moment was particularly poignant for the photographer, whose wife gave birth just days before.

"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 photograph is "profoundly affecting," said jury member Fiona Shields, head of photography at Guardian News & Media.

Announcing its annual awards, the Amsterdam-based World Press Photo Foundation said it was important to recognize the dangers facing journalists covering conflicts.

It said 99 journalists and media employees had been killed covering the war between Israel and Hamas since the Palestinian militant group attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel responded by launching a military offensive in Gaza.

"The work of press and documentary photographers around the world is often done at high risk," said Joumana El Zein Khoury, the organisation's executive director.

"This past year, the death toll in Gaza pushed the number of journalists killed to a near-record high. It is important to recognise the trauma they have experienced to show the world the humanitarian impact of the war."

Source: Reuters