Palestinian Mahmoud Abu Hamda wins top photography prize at Bayeux

Palestinian freelancer Mahmoud Abu Hamda on Saturday won the photography category in the prestigious Bayeux award for war correspondents for his work from Gaza.

The Washington Post, NPR (National Public Radio, US) and CNN won the top prizes in the print, radio and television categories for reports from Ukraine, Gaza and the West Bank respectively.

As well as the top prize, Hamda, based in the Gaza Strip, also won the Public’s Choice award for his reportage “What War Leaves Behind”.

He was not at the ceremony in Bayeux, northwest France, but sent a video message to the event.

“My greatest honour is that these photos have been able to leave the borders of Gaza,” he said.

Hamda sent his unpublished reportage to the Bayeux jury himself. It illustrates life in the Gaza Strip and the hardship its inhabitants are enduring after Israel launched its offensive there following Hamas’s October 7 attack three years ago.

The Washington Post team was honoured for telling the story of a Ukrainian soldier trapped in a combat zone for 177 days.

Palestinian journalist Anas Baba of NPR won the radio award for a report on the recovery of victims’ bodies in Gaza.

CNN journalists won both the television prize and video image award for their report on Israeli soldiers serving settlers in the West Bank.

Associated Press photographer Jehad Alshrafi took the Young Reporter photography prize for his series “Endless War and Devastation in Gaza”.

One of Alshrafi’s photos, showing footballers playing on a pitch surrounded by rubble in Gaza, sparked controversy in France in August.

It was removed from a sports photography festival in the northern French town of Deauville before a court ordered it reinstated.

Veteran BBC war correspondent Lyse Doucet was the president of the Bayeux awards jury.