The UNICEF Photo of the Year Award is given by UNICEF Germany to photographs and photo series that “best depict the personality and living conditions of children worldwide in an outstanding manner”.
Since 2000, the annual award has been given exclusively to professional photographers who have been recommended to UNICEF by internationally renowned photography experts.
The winners were Avishag Shaar-Yashuv from Israel and Samar Abu Elouf from Palestine.
Shaar-Yashuv portrayed children in a hotel who had survived the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, including the winning picture of an eight-year-old boy, Stav.
Both were the only survivors of their family of Israeli air force bombings of residential areas in Gaza.