Lebanon Charity Picks up Pieces after Israeli Bombing

The center was impacted when Israeli strikes targeted branches of a US-sanctioned financial firm with links to Hezbollah - AFP
The center was impacted when Israeli strikes targeted branches of a US-sanctioned financial firm with links to Hezbollah - AFP
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Lebanon Charity Picks up Pieces after Israeli Bombing

The center was impacted when Israeli strikes targeted branches of a US-sanctioned financial firm with links to Hezbollah - AFP
The center was impacted when Israeli strikes targeted branches of a US-sanctioned financial firm with links to Hezbollah - AFP

Near gaping holes where walls used to be, workers at a center for women and children in south Beirut assess the damage after a nearby Israeli strike devastated their facility.

It's "going to take us a lot to have our center running again", said Zeina Mohanna from Lebanese charity Amel Association International, lamenting the space had ended up as "collateral damage".

She said she was "astonished" at the extent of the destruction after the strike hit the building across the street in south Beirut's impoverished Hay al-Sellom neighbourhood.

In late September, the Israeli army began heavily bombing Beirut's southern suburbs, normally a bustling, densely populated urban area where Hezbollah has strong support.
Amel, founded during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, has been literally picking up the pieces at several of its centers since a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah began last week, after more than a year of hostilities.

The Israeli army frequently issued evacuation warnings before the strikes, which it said targeted "Hezbollah facilities and interests".

In Amel's center, where illustrations for children decorate brightly colored walls, parts of the ceiling have been blown off and jagged chunks of glass sit precariously in window frames.

The words "Dream big" and cut-outs of clouds and butterflies were near the entrance where a woman was mopping up water from a broken pipe, as the sound of glass tinkered on the debris-covered street below.

- Al-Qard al-Hassan -

Mohanna said 13 of Amel's 40 centers, which provide social, health and other services nationwide, were damaged in the conflict.

The Hay al-Sellom center, an Amel health facility nearby and a space for migrant workers in south Beirut's Shiyah district were impacted when Israeli strikes targeted branches of Al-Qard al-Hassan, she said.

A Hezbollah-linked financial firm sanctioned by Washington, Al-Qard al-Hassan was targeted as Israeli army says it "directly funds Hezbollah's terror activities", and warned on October 20 that the military would soon attack the firm's "infrastructure".

It later said it hit nearly 30 targets related to the firm, and conducted further raids the following month.

Sokna El Hawli, who runs the Hay al-Sellom center, said around 100 children and 40 women used to go there daily.

"The night I heard there was a strike near the center... I cried and didn't sleep until morning," said Hawli, fighting back fresh tears.

"The people of this area really need this center," said Hawli, herself displaced by the war from her home in the neighborhood.

- 'Shattered' -

The United Nations condemned the October strikes targeting Al-Qard al-Hassan, saying they caused "extensive damage" to civilian property and infrastructure, while Amnesty International said they should be "investigated as a war crime".

Mohanna said the Hay al-Sellom center was home to safe spaces for women victims of gender-based violence and programs for children including one connected to United Nations agency UNICEF.
The United Nations condemned the October strikes on the area, saying they caused "extensive damage" to civilian property and infrastructure

The UN agency told AFP that "the re-establishment of safe spaces for children in their community is vital".

Mohanna said Amel had officially communicated all its centers' locations to the UN -- "to try to protect" them, she added with chagrin.

A few kilometres (miles) away in south Beirut's Shiyah, people were checking Amel's space for migrant workers, heavily damaged in a strike that flattened another building's Al-Qard al-Hassan branch a couple of doors down.

Internal walls were blown apart, broken glass lay everywhere, and the explosion had thrown a neighbour's old-fashioned couch onto the center's debris-strewn balcony.

"You feel shattered... We spend most of our time here... this is our home," said Amel worker Nour Khazaal, as photos of happier days sat among the mess.

Khazaal, who fled her Shiyah house with her one-year-old baby, expressed optimism Amel's facility would bounce back.

"I hope the center will be not only like before, (but) 10 times, 100 times better," she said.



Amputee Palestinian Boy Image Wins World Press Photo Award

This image provided by World Press Photo and taken by Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times, won the World Press Photo Award of the Year and shows Mahmoud Ajjour (9), who was injured during an Israeli attack on Gaza City in March 2024, finds refuge and medical help in Doha, Qatar, 28 June 2024. (Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times/World Press Photo via AP)
This image provided by World Press Photo and taken by Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times, won the World Press Photo Award of the Year and shows Mahmoud Ajjour (9), who was injured during an Israeli attack on Gaza City in March 2024, finds refuge and medical help in Doha, Qatar, 28 June 2024. (Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times/World Press Photo via AP)
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Amputee Palestinian Boy Image Wins World Press Photo Award

This image provided by World Press Photo and taken by Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times, won the World Press Photo Award of the Year and shows Mahmoud Ajjour (9), who was injured during an Israeli attack on Gaza City in March 2024, finds refuge and medical help in Doha, Qatar, 28 June 2024. (Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times/World Press Photo via AP)
This image provided by World Press Photo and taken by Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times, won the World Press Photo Award of the Year and shows Mahmoud Ajjour (9), who was injured during an Israeli attack on Gaza City in March 2024, finds refuge and medical help in Doha, Qatar, 28 June 2024. (Samar Abu Elouf, for The New York Times/World Press Photo via AP)

A haunting portrait of a nine-year-old Palestinian boy who lost both arms during an Israeli attack on Gaza City won the 2025 World Press Photo of the Year Award Thursday.

The picture, by Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times, depicts Mahmoud Ajjour, evacuated to Doha after an explosion severed one arm and mutilated the other last year.

"One of the most difficult things Mahmoud's mother explained to me was how when Mahmoud first came to the realisation that his arms were amputated, the first sentence he said to her was, 'How will I be able to hug you'?" said Elouf.

The photographer is also from Gaza and was herself evacuated in December 2023. She now portrays badly wounded Palestinians based in Doha.

"This is a quiet photo that speaks loudly. It tells the story of one boy, but also of a wider war that will have an impact for generations," said Joumana El Zein Khoury, World Press Photo Executive Director.

The jury praised the photo's "strong composition and attention to light" and its thought-provoking subject-matter, especially questions raised over Mahmoud's future.

The boy is now learning to play games on his phone, write, and open doors with his feet, the jury said.

"Mahmoud's dream is simple: he wants to get prosthetics and live his life as any other child," said the World Press Photo organisers in a statement.

The jury also selected two photos for the runner-up prize.

The first, entitled "Droughts in the Amazon" by Musuk Nolte for Panos Pictures and the Bertha Foundation, shows a man on a dried-up river bed in the Amazon carrying supplies to a village once accessible by boat.

The second, "Night Crossing" by John Moore shooting for Getty Images, depicts Chinese migrants huddling near a fire during a cold rainshower after crossing the US–Mexico border.

The jury sifted through 59,320 photographs from 3,778 photo journalists to select 42 prize-winning shots from around the world.

Photographers for Agence France-Presse were selected four times for a regional prize, more than any other organization.

Nairobi-based Luis Tato won in the "Stories" category for the Africa region for a selection of photos depicting Kenya's youth uprising.

Jerome Brouillet won in the "Singles" category Asia-Pacific and Oceania for his iconic picture of surfer Gabriel Medina seemingly floating above the waves.

Clarens Siffroy won in the "Stories" category North and Central America for his coverage of the gang crisis in Haiti.

Finally, Anselmo Cunha won in the "Singles" category for South America for his photo of a Boeing 727-200 stranded at Salgado Filho International Airport in Brazil.