Freelance photojournalist Ali Mahmud, who contributed to the Associated Press and accompanied the Hamas terrorists during the October 7, 2024 attack in Israel has won the Team Picture Story of the Year awarded by Donald Reynolds Journalism Institute in the United States for the photograph of Shani Louk who was paraded naked by the Hamas terrorists before killing her.
According to the website of the award, the Team Picture Story of the Year Award category recognises the collaborative effort of a photography staff covering a single topic and news story. “It is a narrative picture story that consists of images taken as a part of the team effort to cover a single issue or news story.
Shani Louk’s photography is the first photograph of the gallery and it states in the caption “Palestinian militants drive back to the Gaza Strip with the body of Shani Louk, a German-Israel dual citizen during their cross-border attack on Israel, Saturday, October 7, 2023.
Several other photographs showing the aftermath of the Hamas terror attack and Israel’s military action in Gaza, mostly taken by AP photojournalists have been selected for the award. The award is handed out by the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in the United States of America.
Ali Mahmud is one of the journalists that travelled with terrorists into Israel and extensively covered the attack. Media watchdog Honest Reporting had identified six freelance photographs who had contributed to international media agencies. The six photographers are Hassan Eslaiah, Yousef Masood, Ali Mahmoud, Hatem Ali, Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa and Yasser Qudih.
It is believed that they were aware of the Hamas terror attack before it took place. The freelancers snapped photos of a burning Israeli tank and of Hamas terrorists kidnapping people including the German-Israeli Shani Louk who was later found dead.
The photo-journalists had posted the photos on social media in real time, when the attack was going on. In some posts, the photographers pasted their own photographs from the Israeli territory during the attack. They later deleted the posts, but Honest Reporting had already taken screenshots of these posts.
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