{"id":776399,"date":"2026-05-06T03:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T03:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/776399\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T03:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T03:44:18","slug":"palestinian-photographer-who-captured-devastation-and-starvation-in-gaza-wins-pulitzer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/776399\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestinian photographer who captured \u2018devastation and starvation in Gaza\u2019 wins Pulitzer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New York Times photographer working in Gaza was awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for photography for pictures taken during the war between Israel and Hamas.<\/p>\n

The prize committee said it was honoring Saher Alghorra \u201cfor his haunting, sensitive series showing the devastation and starvation in Gaza resulting from the war with Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of Alghorra\u2019s front-page pictures, published in July 2025, showed an emaciated boy being cradled by his mother. It became a symbol of allegations of widespread starvation<\/a> in the territory \u2014 and a target of criticism by those, including the Israeli government, who rejected<\/a> the claim that it was intentionally causing hunger there.<\/p>\n

Pictures of the boy, Mohammed al-Mutawaq, also appeared in Sky News, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, and the Times of London.<\/p>\n

But several days after the photo appeared on The New York Times\u2019 front page, freelance investigative journalist David Collier\u00a0reported on his website<\/a> that a May 2025 medical report from Gaza stated that Mohammed was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and suffers from hypoxemia, or low levels of oxygen in the blood, possibly linked to a suspected genetic disorder.<\/p>\n

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Collier also noted in his article that other photos from the same sets, used by major outlets, showed Mohammed\u2019s mother and his older brother, who look to be of normal weight.<\/p>\n

However, Collier himself acknowledged that Mohammed \u201chas needed specialist medical supplements since birth,\u201d indicating that he was also likely suffering due to the limited aid flow into Gaza, as medical equipment was in short supply and the Strip\u2019s health system had all but collapsed.<\/p>\n

The New York Times subsequently altered the story to note that the boy suffered from a medical issue that inhibited muscle development and removed a quote from his mother saying that he had been healthy before the Hamas-led attack that launched the Gaza war on Oct. 7, 2023. But it did not back away from the story\u2019s other claims about starvation in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\n

We are thrilled to announce that the Palestinian photographer Saher Alghorra is the new winner of the 15th edition of the Visa d’or award for his powerful reporting from the Gaza Strip. <\/p>\n

Learn more: https:\/\/t.co\/uFRBsGbpQg<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/EcpeQOBDYD<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 ICRC (@ICRC) June 27, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The photographs for which Alghorra was recognized include snapshots of Gazans queuing for food, bringing wounded children for medical care and marking Ramadan inside bombed buildings. They also include a picture of a different emaciated child who became a face of the hunger crisis without attracting the same specific criticism.\n<\/p>\n

Israel blocked the entry of aid<\/a> into Gaza for 11 weeks last year, and officials acknowledged food shortages. But Israel denied claims of famine<\/a>, saying that Hamas was preventing aid from reaching Palestinian civilians and that the UN was not distributing aid stockpiled at border crossings.<\/p>\n

Alghorra, 28, did not immediately comment online on the Pulitzer, but he wrote on Instagram after winning a different prize last month for a similar set of images, the World Press Photo Award, about what it meant to have his work recognized.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart is heavy with what I have witnessed \u2014 and what I was compelled to photograph: lives lost, lives shattered, displacement, hunger, total destruction, and relentless suffering,\u201d he wrote. \u201cEach image in this series carries the weight of what we have lived through. The images\u2014and the screams\u2014are engraved in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palestinian American author\u00a0Hala Alyan\u2019s book \u201cI\u2019ll Tell You When I\u2019m Home: A Memoir,\u201d which interweaves Alyan\u2019s story of infertility with her family\u2019s story of displacement, was a finalist in the memoir and autobiography category.<\/p>\n

Several Jewish authors were honored in the prizes, announced Monday afternoon, though none for storytelling about Israel. M Gessen won for opinion writing in The New York Times about rising authoritarianism in the United States, while Bess Wohl won in the drama category for \u201cLiberation,\u201d a play about the 1970s women\u2019s liberation movement that includes a prominent Jewish character.<\/p>\n


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