Palestinian Photojournalist Wins First Place in French Photo Awards

Saber al-Ashqar, 29, with amputated legs, swinging a slingshot as part of the weekly "Great March of Return" protests (Photo: via Twitter)

The top photo prize of the 25th edition of the Bayeux-Calvados-Normandy Award for War Correspondents went to Palestinian photojournalist, Mahmoud Hams.

Thirty-eight-year-old Hams won for his picture of a Palestinian protester on a wheelchair in the besieged Gaza Strip, preparing to throw a rock using a slingshot at Israeli soldiers on the other side of the border fence with Israel.

The winning picture, taken on May 11, 2018, which featured Saber al-Ashqar, 29, with amputated legs, swinging a slingshot with black smoke in the background as part of the weekly “The Great March of Return” protests waged at the border since March 30.

Over 200 Palestinians were killed and thousands injured in the Israeli army crackdown on the protests.

Hams, a resident from Gaza, works for the French news agency, AFP, and had covered a number of conflicts and demonstrations in Gaza.

It is noteworthy that fifty war correspondents from all over the world have competed for the awards this year.

The French town of Bayeux created the award in 1994 as a tribute to war correspondents who risk their lives to expose the horrors of war.

(Ma’an, PC, Social Media)

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