A Heartbreaking Image of a palestinian Woman Cradling a dead Child won 2024 World Press Photo of the Year
Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem received the 2024 World Press Photo of the Year award for a powerful photograph captured in the Gaza Strip. The winning photo shows 36-year-old Inas Abu Maamar grieving as she holds the body of her five-year-old niece Saly. This poignant moment was photographed at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis on October 17, 2023, amidst families searching for loved ones after an Israeli bombing.
Mohammed Salem won the World Press Photo (WPP) award for a heart-wrenching image of Inas Abu Maamar, grieving over the body of her child Saly in a hospital morgue. Salem humbly received the award, emphasizing the photo’s significance in raising awareness of war’s impact on children rather than celebrating. During the ceremony in Amsterdam, Reuters Global Editor Rickey Rogers shared Salem’s hope that the award would help bring global attention to the issue.
The World Press Photo Foundation underscored the perils journalists face reporting on conflicts, noting the deaths of 99 journalists and media workers amid the conflict and mass slaughter in Gaza. The statement highlighted the risky nature of the work of press and documentary photographers worldwide, particularly poignant with the high death toll in Gaza. The foundation’s executive director, Joumana El Zein Khoury, emphasized the importance of acknowledging the trauma experienced by journalists, which serves to show the humanitarian impact of the war. The announcement also recognized a 39-year-old Palestinian, Salem, who has been working with Reuters since 2003 and was a winner in the World Press Photo competition in 2010.
According to Reuters, 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.
“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.” Salem’s wife had given birth to their child days before he took the shot. The photograph is “profoundly affecting,” said jury member Fiona Shields, head of photography at Guardian News & Media.
The jury selected the winning photos from 61,062 entries by 3,851 photographers from 130 countries.
The latest figures shows that more than 30,000 women and children killed in Gaza since the conflict began on Oct 7, 2023. Many argue that these numbers are underestimated since thousand has been lost in the rubble and is unaccounted for.