Image of Palestinian woman with deceased niece wins World Press Photo

(Amsterdam) The poignant image of a grieving Palestinian woman holding her little niece, killed in an Israeli strike in the war-torn Gaza Strip, won the top prize at World Press Photo on Thursday.

The photo by Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem shows Inas Abu Maamar cradling the body of his five-year-old niece, Saly, killed along with her mother and sister by a missile that struck their home in Khan Younis in October.

The photographer was at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on October 17 when he saw Inas Abu Maamar, 36, in tears, holding the little girl’s body wrapped in a white cloth in his arms at the morgue.

The photo was taken 10 days after the start of the conflict, sparked by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel.

“It was a powerful and sad moment and I felt that the image summed up in a broad sense what was happening in the Gaza Strip,” said Mr. Salem, quoted in a statement from the World Press Photo, a prestigious competition of photojournalism.

“It’s a truly deeply moving image,” said jury president Fiona Shields. “Once you see it, it kind of sticks in your mind.”

The image is “like a kind of literal and metaphorical message about the horror and futility of conflict” and represents “an incredibly powerful argument for peace”, she added.

South African Lee-Ann Olwage, shooting for the magazine GEOwon the “Story of the Year” award with its intimate portrait of a Malagasy family living with an elderly parent suffering from dementia.

“This story addresses a universal health issue through the lens of family and care,” the judges said.

“The series of images is composed with warmth and tenderness, reminding audiences of the love and intimacy needed in times of war and aggression around the world,” they added.

Venezuelan photographer Alejandro Cegarra won the long-term project prize with his monochrome images of migrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross Mexico’s southern border, taken for New York Times/Bloomberg.

Having had migrant experience himself, Mr. Cegarra “offered a sensitive, human-centered perspective,” highlighting the resilience of migrants, according to the jury.

In the “open format” category, Ukrainian Julia Kochetova won with her website which “combines photojournalism with the personal documentary style of a diary to show the world what it means to live with war as a daily reality.”

The winning photos in 2024 were selected from 61,062 entries submitted by 3,851 photographers from 130 countries. The photos are on display in the Nieuwe Kerk church in Amsterdam until July 14.