World Press Photo winner shows “irreversible personal loss”

A photograph documenting “irreversible personal loss” in Gaza has won the 2024 World Press Photo Contest’s top award, the Amsterdam-based organisation said on Thursday.

The photo, entitled “a Palestinian woman embraces the body of her niece”, was taken by Reuter’s photographer Mohammed Salem, who also won an award in the competition 14 years ago.

Salem describes this photo, taken just days after his own wife gave birth, as a “powerful and sad moment that sums up the broader sense of what was happening in the Gaza Strip”.

It shows Inas Abu Maamar (36) cradling the body of her niece Saly (5) who was killed, along with her mother and sister, when an Israeli missile struck their home, in Khan Younis, Gaza.

Reuters’ global pictures editor Rickey Rogers said at the award ceremony at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam that Salem says “this is not a photo to celebrate”.

Reuters’ Mohammed Salem wins 2024 World Press Photo of the Year award https://t.co/xx1LsoHIaK pic.twitter.com/JXdlBBGJMR

— Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) April 18, 2024

“He hopes with this award that the world will become even more conscious of the human impact of war, especially on children,” Rogers said.

The winning photos were chosen from more than 60,000 entries provided by over 3,800 photographers from 130 countries.