Portrait of injured Gazan boy named press photo of the year- BBC
AMSTERDAM: A HAUNTING image of a young Gazan boy recovering from war injuries has been named World Press Photo of the Year for 2025.
The portrait, taken by Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf for the New York Times, shows nine-year-old Mahmoud Ajjour, who lost both arms in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City in March 2024.
Abu Elouf, who was evacuated from Gaza in late 2023, lives in the same apartment complex as Mahmoud in Doha, Qatar.
She has documented the lives of several wounded Gazans who made it out for treatment.
“This is a quiet photo that speaks loudly,” said World Press Photo executive director Joumana El Zein Khoury.
“It tells the story of one boy, but also of a wider war that will have an impact for generations.”
Night Crossing by John Moore for Getty Images and Droughts in the Amazon by Musuk Nolte for Panos Pictures, Bertha Foundation.
He walks two kilometres along a dry riverbed, a stark reminder of the region’s deepening water crisis.
The sight of parched, desert-like terrain in the world’s largest rainforest underscores the alarming scale of the drought.
This year’s winners represent the best of the 59,320 photographs by 3,778 photographers from 141 countries.
Here is a selection of the regional winners, with captions from the competition.
The three categories were singles (solo photographs), stories (series of 4-10 photos) and long-term projects (24-30 photos on a single theme).
