The photo, taken by Qatar-based Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times shows nine-year-old Mahmoud Ajjour with his arms missing just below each shoulder.

“One of the most difficult things Mahmoud’s mother explained to me was how when Mahmoud first came to the realisation that his arms were amputated, the first sentence he said to her was, ‘How will I be able to hug you?'” Abu Elouf said in a statement released by the World Press Photo organisation yesterday.

The winner of the 68th edition of the prestigious photojournalism contest was selected from 59,320 entries submitted by 3778 photographers from 141 countries.

“This is a quiet photo that speaks loudly. It tells the story of one boy, but also of a wider war that will have an impact for generations,” said World Press Photo executive director Joumana El Zein Khoury.

In a statement, the organisation said Ajjour was injured while fleeing an Israeli attack in March 2024.

“After he turned back to urge his family onward, an explosion severed one of his arms and mutilated the other,” according to the World Press Photo citation.

“This young boy’s life deserves to be understood, and this picture does what great photojournalism can do: provide a layered entry point into a complex story, and the incentive to prolong one’s encounter with that story,” said jury chair Lucy Conticello, who is director of photography for French newspaper Le Monde‘s weekend magazine.

Winning photographer Abu Elouf was evacuated from Gaza in December 2023 and she now lives in the same apartment complex as Ajjour in Qatar’s capital, Doha.

Israel launched its devastating attack on Gaza after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, in which thousands of militants stormed into southern Israel from Gaza, killing some 1200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive. It does not differentiate between civilians and militants, but says that more than half of the dead were women and children, including at least 876 infants younger than one. It says more than 116,000 people have been wounded.

Israel blames Hamas for the heavy civilian toll because the group carries out attacks and other military activities from residential areas and civilian buildings.

Competition organisers also named two World Press Photo finalists that highlighted the issues of migration and climate change.

A dark photo by John Moore for Getty Images shows Chinese migrants warming themselves after crossing the US-Mexico border, and a picture by Musuk Nolte for Panos Pictures, Bertha Foundation, of a young man carrying food across a dried up river bed in Brazil’s Amazon basin region.