Images of conflicts and human triumphs from the Gaza Strip and Syria received high honours on the largest pictures award of the Gulf area on Tuesday (November 11, 2025). The 14th Season of Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) honoured photographers from Gaza Strip, Idlib province of Syria, Italy, Oman, United States and India amongst different areas for capturing photos that represented the theme of the 2025 awards – ‘power’.
Mohammed Salem, Jehad Alshrafi, Belal Altellawi from Gaza Strip obtained advantage medal recognition from HIPA for recording the situation of the enclave beneath the Israeli navy marketing campaign. The high award winner from Gaza Strip was Ali Jadallah of northern Gaza who obtained the primary prize for narrating the story of war-hit Gaza Strip to the skin world. Mr. Jadallah was represented by his spouse who flew in to Dubai to obtain the award on behalf of her partner on the award ceremony in Museum of the Future (MOTF) in Dubai. Mr. Jadallah’s photos captured the situation of Gaza because it ready for the month of Ramadan as kids starved earlier this yr even because the Israeli navy operation continued.
“Jadallah’s father and his siblings were killed three days after the Israeli bombing started on October 7, 2023. His mother relocated to Turkiye where she continues to receive treatment but Jadallah continued to remain in Gaza where he has continued with photographing the war despite problems with electricity, internet and food scarcity,” stated his spouse Doaa Elasawi who obtained the prize for Mr. Jadallah. She noticed that photographers from the Gaza Strip have performed a very powerful position in exposing the fact of Gaza Strip which continues to face assaults from Israel regardless of the ceasefire.
The different group of battle zone photographers who had been honoured at HIPA got here from Syria who’ve been capturing photos of Syria over the previous twelve years as rebels clashed with the now deposed authorities of President Assad. Hashem Dardowra of Syria was among the many high winners for his depiction of the survival of a 14-year outdated Khaled who labored as an apprentice in a carpenter’s workshop Idlib when the the realm got here beneath bombing. The successful photograph confirmed, Khaled rising from rubble with bandage on his head with a defiant smile. Other winners from Syria was Ghaith Alsayed who received a advantage medial for his photograph exhibiting a vegetable market within the metropolis of Homs that grew round an deserted tank belonging to the forces of the deposed President Bashar Al Assad. Chinese photographer Mei Yin additionally obtained a advantage medal at HIPA for the {photograph} of the deserted and destroyed metropolis blocks of Aleppo that noticed intense fights between forces of President Assad and the rebels.
Indian photographers additionally received high photographers with Deepak Singh Dogra main with the second prize within the astrophotography the place his beautiful photos of the solar and photo voltaic flares. Drone photographer Shantha Kumar Nagendran received the second prize within the new class of drone pictures that showcased his work that crisscrossed India.
(The reporter was a visitor of the HIPA, Dubai)