Arab News | Palestinian Mahmoud Abu Hamda wins top photography prize at Bayeux

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

As well as the top prize, Hamda, based in the Gaza Strip, also won the Public’s Choice award for his reportage “What the war leaves behind it.”

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

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.

The Washington Post team was honored 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 correspondent Lyse Doucet was the president of the Bayeux awards jury.