Residents begin to return to their homes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, after a 7 April Israeli withdrawal. In July and August, Israel would launch two more ground incursions into the southern city, and attacks continued into 2025. 
2025 Photo Contest - West, Central, and South Asia - Stories

Gaza Under Israeli Attack

Photographer

Ali Jadallah

Anadolu Agency
09 April, 2024

Residents begin to return to their homes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, after a 7 April Israeli withdrawal. In July and August, Israel would launch two more ground incursions into the southern city, and attacks continued into 2025. 

Israel continued its war on Gaza throughout 2024, leaving much of the territory in ruins, and controlling and blocking the inflow of aid, including food, medical, and humanitarian aid. The situation worsened after May 2024 when Israeli forces seized control of the Gaza side of Rafah and its crossing, after which the crossing was closed, further impacting medical evacuations and the entry of humanitarian aid.
 
The UN reports more than 60 percent of homes in Gaza have been destroyed and 95 percent of hospitals are non-functional; more than 200 schools have been destroyed or damaged since the beginning of the war. According to a Forensic Architecture analysis, Israel has also destroyed approximately 40 percent of the land in Gaza previously used for food production. Nearly two million people have been displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicines, due to Israeli restrictions.

With international journalists effectively barred from Gaza, local photographers risked their lives to document the war: more than 80 local journalists and media workers were killed in Gaza in 2024. The photographer, who has also lost family members, says: “Every time I photograph a destroyed house, I remember mine. Every time the wounded and martyred are pulled from the rubble, I remember my father and siblings.”


Are you a photographer and/or passionate about press freedom? Sign up for our newsletter to stay updated on our annual contest and to hear about exhibitions near you.

Ali Jadallah
About the photographer

Ali Hassan Jadallah is a Palestinian photojournalist who has documented life in the Gaza Strip for over 13 years. His work captures both the immediacy of conflict and the resilience of daily life, providing a visual record of the region’s ongoing struggles. He has covered three Israeli wars on Gaza, delivering po...

Read the full biography
Technical information
Shutter Speed

1/1250

Focal length

70-200mm

F-Stop

f/2.8

ISO

50

Camera

EOS-1D X Mark III

Jury comment

The jury felt this work offers a critical representation of the industrial scale of violence experienced daily by Gazans. Despite the story's graphic imagery, the project serves as a powerful record of the immense human cost and destruction endured by civilians. Additionally, it underscores the vital role of Gazan photographers in bearing witness to these ongoing atrocities, ensuring that the world does not look away especially as international journalists are barred entry.