Alex Ng When judging news photography, the first consideration is not the magnitude of the news event itself, but the essential elements of a visual work: what the image wants to say, how it says it, and whether it says it well. The conflict between Israel and Palestine was one of the most significant global issues last year, and both sides have their supporters. As a competition judge, one must view these photographs with detachment—judging the image as an image. The success of this entry lies in its ability to break the viewer’s heart. The most important element in news photography is tragedy, and this series captures, from different visual perspectives, the victims on one side of this tragedy: injured children, the loss of loved ones, and families displaced from their homes. In every frame of this series, the photographer has created images filled with power—images that deeply move and devastate the viewer.
Since October 2023, Gaza has become a bloody scene of genocide: brutal airstrikes tearing apart peaceful neighborhoods; children’s bodies pulled from rubble into overcrowded hospitals overwhelmed by agony. Heartbreaking scenes of mothers losing their children instantly, families displaced by relentless bombings into hunger and fragile tents. Mosques reduced to rubble, yet worshippers uphold their faith amid destruction. Homes emptied of life, childhoods stolen—children deprived of limbs but not hope, their eyes defiantly resilient, challenging the world.
