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Pulitzer Honors Gaza Witnessing
The 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography was awarded to Saher Alghorra for pictures taken during the war with Israel in Gaza, with the prize committee honoring him “for his haunting, sensitive series showing the devastation and starvation in Gaza resulting from the war with Israel.”
“for his haunting, sensitive series showing the devastation and starvation in Gaza resulting from the war with Israel”
In remarks for the prize, Joe Kahn said Saher’s work from Gaza was “the culmination of a yearslong effort that intimately captures the emotional toll of that war,” and he noted that Saher “cannot be here today for this event.”
Meaghan Looram, the New York Times director of photography, said Alghorra was “documenting in real time, and at great personal risk, events and conditions that most of the world would otherwise never see.”
Looram added that “International journalists are still barred from entering Gaza,” and that “it has become one of the most dangerous places for journalists to operate.”
Images, Criticism, and Access
One of Alghorra’s front-page pictures, published in July 2025, showed “an emaciated boy being cradled by his mother,” which the Jewish Telegraphic Agency said became a symbol of the hunger crisis in the territory and a target of criticism by those including the Israeli government.
The New York Times later altered the story to note that the boy suffered from “a medical issue that inhibited muscle development” and removed a quote from his mother saying he had been healthy before the Hamas-led attack that launched the Gaza war on Oct. 7, 2023.
The Times of Israel reported that freelance investigative journalist David Collier wrote on his website that a May 2025 medical report from Gaza stated Mohammed was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and suffers from hypoxemia, or low levels of oxygen in the blood.
Collier also reported that other photos from the same sets showed Mohammed’s mother and his older brother, who “look to be of normal weight,” while the Times of Israel said Israel blocked the entry of aid into Gaza for 11 weeks last year and denied claims of famine.
What’s at Stake Next
The Pulitzer materials and related coverage tied Alghorra’s award to the ongoing humanitarian crisis, describing images of Gazans queuing for food, bringing wounded children for medical care, and marking Ramadan inside bombed buildings.
“I took their pictures because I felt they were clinging to life”
In the Pulitzer Prizes profile, Alghorra said, “I took their pictures because I felt they were clinging to life, tending to their wounds and trying to rebuild their lives with the simplest of means,” describing the Shafei family breaking their daily Ramadan fast in the charred remains of their home overlooking the ruins of Beit Lahia.
The New York Times also framed the prize around the constraints on reporting, saying that with international journalists barred from the territory without Israeli escorts, Alghorra “played a crucial role.”
The New York Times Company remarks emphasized that the Times and other news organizations “continue to call on Israel to let journalists into Gaza,” while Looram said Alghorra was “living through it himself, facing the same hardship and peril as those whose lives he so compassionately documents.”