AFP Photographer Said Khatib Wins Spain Prize for Gaza Photograph

Said Khatib, a Palestinian photojournalist for AFP, received Spain’s esteemed Mingote Prize on Thursday. The ceremony, graced by King Felipe VI, honored Khatib for a striking photograph taken in October 2023 in Gaza.

The award, sponsored by the ABC newspaper, acknowledged Khatib’s poignant image of two children peering through a car window amid the rubble in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. The photograph was captured shortly after the conflict intensified when Hamas militants breached the border into southern Israel.

Khatib took the award-winning image on October 12, just five days after the deadly Hamas incursion on October 7, which spurred the ongoing Gaza war. The Mingote Prize, determined by a jury of Spanish journalists, is a significant accolade in Spain’s journalism industry, rarely given to non-Spanish speakers.

“Khatib’s recent photos vividly portray the civilian population’s suffering… They highlight the challenges faced by the most vulnerable amidst this conflict,” stated ABC when they announced him as the winner in May.

Khatib, an alumnus of Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, has been with Agence France-Presse (AFP) since 2003.

The Gaza conflict erupted on October 7 when Hamas launched an attack on Israel, causing the deaths of 1,195 people, primarily civilians, according to AFP’s tally based on Israeli data. Additionally, the militants captured 251 hostages, of whom 116 remain in Gaza, including 42 that the Israeli military reports are deceased.

In retaliation, Israel launched an offensive that, as per figures from Gaza’s health ministry, has claimed at least 38,848 lives, mostly civilians.