An image of Mahmoud Ajjour, 9, who was seriously injured in an Israeli strike, won the photo of the year of the year 2025.
A Palestinian child who was seriously injured in an attack by Israeli drones against Gaza last year, and who was represented in an image that won the press of the press of the year 2025, says that he had trouble adapting to life since he lost his two weapons in the explosion.
Addressing Tel Aviv Tribune de Doha, Qatar, where he received a treatment, Mahmoud Ajjour, nine, recalled the moment when the bomb exploded, targeting his house in March 2024.
At the beginning, Ajjour, from the old town of Gaza City, said that he did not know that he had been injured.
“I thought I was just falling. But I found myself on the ground, exhausted and asking myself what had happened,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.
In reality, an arm “flew away, and one stolen and fell right next to me,” he added.
He still does not know that he had suffered serious injuries – wounds that mutilated his whole body – Ajjour said he had looked around and saw his arms. Although they seem familiar, his brain still couldn’t understand that they had been blown away.
“My mother then told me that I had lost my arms,” recalls Ajjour. “I started to cry. I was very sad and my mental state was very bad. ”
His mental health has deteriorated more when he, like many others in Gaza, had to undergo surgery without anesthetics due to a serious lack of medical supplies. Throughout the war, the Israeli forces have largely kept the vital closed edge passages, preventing the entry of essential medical supplies, as well as food and other aid, including fuel.
“They carried out surgery on me while I was awake,” said Ajjour, the shock still obvious in his voice.
“I couldn’t endure the pain, I was screaming very hard. My voice filled the corridors. “
‘Everything is difficult’
Ajjour is one of the thousands of children in Gaza who undergo injuries that change their life due to a relentless and blind Israeli bombardment.
According to the United Nations Fund for children, more than 10 children have lost one or both of their legs since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its current genocide in Gaza.
It is more than 1,000 children.
“Gaza now has the largest number of children amputated per capita all over the world – many losing members and undergoing surgeries without anesthesia,” said UN secretary general Antonio Guterres in December.
Ajjour now learns to write, play games on your phone and dress using your feet – but still needs special help for most daily activities.
He now sucks on the days when his arms were still intact.
Before the attack, Ajjour said he was going on the market and bought his mother, the vegetables and the food she needed.
“Now everything is difficult, including feeding me, helping me in the toilet … But I do my best,” he said. “I manage my life like that. I make it work. “
Ajjour dreams of a future where he can return to Gaza and help rebuild the devastated enclave.
He hopes that the world will be able to “end the war against Gaza”.
“We want to live on our land. We don’t want the Israelis to take it,” he said.
“People die there (in Gaza). And my house was bombed. How could I live like that? “
The current assault of Israel against the besieged and bombed territory has so far killed more than 51,000 Palestinians and injured at least 116,505 others, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
It also forcibly moved most of its 2.3 million strong populations, ravaged most land, damaged the basic infrastructure and dismantled its already breathtaking health system.