The image shows a young person in a red hooded jacket, visibly upset with tears on their cheeks. They are sitting beside a framed portrait of a man who is out of focus. The man in the photo appears to have a beard and is wearing sunglasses. The young person is wearing a traditional black and white keffiyeh around their neck, suggesting cultural significance. The background is a blurred stone wall, emphasizing a solemn atmosphere.
A boy weeps as he sit next to a portrait of Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah, who was killed when an Israeli shell landed in a gathering of international journalists on Oct. 13, 2023, during a protest calling for an end to the war in Gaza and for an immediate cease-fire, in front of the Lebanese National Museum in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023. Lebanese troops prevented most of the protesters from reaching the French embassy and they later marched toward the nearby National Museum where they held their protest. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
By:
May 6, 2024

More than 12 family members of Reuters photographers have been killed in the Israel-Hamas War as the news organization covered the death and destruction of Israel’s assault on Gaza.

As misleading images and videos flooded social media, such costly visual coverage of the war has been crucial. Reuters’ work documenting what’s really happening in Israel and Gaza won it the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography.

Reuters captured photos on Oct. 7 of Hamas militants cruising Gaza streets in Israeli military vehicles and bodies scattered in front of a bomb shelter in southern Israel. Through the work of photographer Amir Cohen, readers witnessed Israel’s Iron Dome rocket system intercept rockets from Gaza days later.

These real images countered footage from video games that social media users claimed came from Gaza, along with miscaptioned photos from Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. And they came as news organizations struggled to provide boots on the ground during a conflict that has led to the death of nearly 100 journalists.

In its push to cover the Israeli bombing of Gaza, the photography team took refuge for a month in a two-story house — among more than 65 people — until fuel and drinking water ran out, according to Reuters’ Pulitzer Prize submission.

Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem won 2024’s World Press Photo of the Year for his image of a woman holding in her arms the shrouded body of her five-year-old niece. And photographer Ibraheem Abu Mustafa captured a man carrying a deceased woman out of the rubble of an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza.

WATCH: Breaking down the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes with Poynter

Aside from the brutal conditions and family members lost by its photography staff, Reuters was also accused by Israeli officials of collaborating with Hamas ahead of Oct. 7. Freelancer Yasser Qudih, who was among those targeted by the officials, contributed to Reuters’ winning portfolio with an Oct. 25 shot of a man embracing his nephews while searching for victims of an airstrike.

Finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography include Adem Altan of Agency France Presse for a photo of a man holding his deceased daughter’s hand following the earthquake in Turkey and Syria which killed more than 50,000; and Nicole S. Hester of The Tennessean for an image of a young girl in anguish peering through a school bus window she is evacuated from the scene of a shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville.

More from Poynter on the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes:

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Alex Mahadevan
Alex Mahadevan is director of MediaWise, Poynter’s digital media literacy project that teaches people of all ages how to spot misinformation online. As director, Alex…
Alex Mahadevan

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