Muhammad Salem was informed of his WPP award with great humility as it was not a picture to be celebrated.
Dawn Media Reporter International
Amsterdam: The photo of a Palestinian woman holding her five-year-old niece, who was martyred by Israeli bombing in the war-torn Gaza Strip, was taken by the British news agency Reuters photographer Muhammad Salem as the best picture of the world press photo of 2024. Awarded.
This photo was taken on October 17 at Nasir Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, where Palestinian families were searching for their relatives who were killed by Israeli bombardment.
In this award-winning photo from Salem, a 36-year-old woman, Anas Abu Muammar, can be seen crying profusely as she clutches her five-year-old niece to her chest wrapped in a shroud in a hospital morgue.
Ricky Rogers, Reuters’ global editor for pictures and video, said Mohammed Salem was humbled to receive the news of his WPP award because it was not an image to be celebrated.
During an event in Amsterdam, Ricky Rogers praised Salem for his work in helping to spread the scene by publishing it.
He said that with this award, I hope the world will become more aware of the effects of war on humanity, especially children.
Announcing the annual awards, Amsterdam-based World Press Photo said it was important to recognize the dangers faced by journalists covering conflict.
He said that since Israel began bombing Gaza on October 7, 99 journalists and media workers covering the war have been killed, and more than 34,000 people have been killed in Israeli bombing so far. including mostly women and children.
The organization’s executive director Jumana Al-Zein Khoury said the work of press and documentary photographers around the world is often high-risk.
He said that the death toll in Gaza last year made the number of journalists killed at an all-time high, so it was important to show the world the humanitarian impact of war and the pain they went through. are
The 39-year-old Palestinian journalist has been working for Reuters since 2003 and won an award at the World Press Photo Contest in 2010.
The jury said Salem’s 2024 award-winning image was shot with the utmost care and respect, simultaneously a metaphor for unimaginable loss and a poignant depiction of it.
When the photo was first published in November, Salem said at the time, “I feel that this photo sums up the broader feeling of what is happening in the Gaza Strip.”
Briefly describing the moment of taking the picture, he said that people were in a frenzy, running from one place to another to find out about their loved ones, and at such a time I saw the woman who carried the little girl. He was holding the body and refused to leave.
