Palestinian photographer wins prize for Gaza coverage
Palestinian photographer Mahmud Hams has won the prestigious Visa d’Or News prize for his coverage of Israel’s devastating war on Gaza. Hams, 44, has worked for France’s AFP news agency in the besieged Palestinian territory since 2003. He denounced the targeting of journalists during the conflict.
“I spent my childhood in Gaza and in 23 years of photojournalism, I have witnessed every war, every conflict there. But this war is unlike any other,” said Hams in a statement.
“Many journalists have been killed; others wounded. I’ve also lost friends and loved ones. We struggled to keep our families safe,” he said. “I hope the photos we take show the world that this war, and the suffering, must end.”
Eric Baradat, a deputy news director at AFP, paid tribute to Hams’s work.
“Mahmud and his colleagues, photographers and journalists from AFP in the Gaza Strip have carried out extraordinary work in every respect, considering the conditions in which they lived with their families and loved ones,” said Baradat.
“It is staggering and often unimaginable. Their testimony will be recorded in history.”
Here’s a selection of some of his work from Gaza. Hams left Gaza in February.
Palestinians collect food at a donation point in a refugee camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 23
A photograph taken by Mahmud Hams in January 2024 shows Palestinian newlyweds celebrating their wedding at a UNRWA school in Rafah
In January, Hams also documented Israel’s ground invasion of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip
Palestinians mourn their dead at Al-Najjar hospital after identifying the bodies of their relatives killed in overnight Israeli bombardment of Rafah on February
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