“This photo was taken on the first day of war and, when I immortalized it, I understood that it would not have been a photo like the others.” The Palestinian photojournalist Samar Abu Elouf tells the photo-image of the exhibition Gaza When Emotions suffocated in the photography section of International Festival islands that speak (from 6 to 14 September 2025 in Gallura). In the photo a Palestinian child brings his sister surrounded by other children who look at the sky terrified by the sound of Israeli bombing in one of the schools in the city of Gaza in the arms. A photo capable of catapulting us in the horror of 7 October 2023 when, immediately after the massacre in the Israeli kibbuz, the armed response from the Army of Netanyahu began. «Their fear merged with mine, caused by the terrifying noises that came from the sky above us. But while they looked at the top, I focused on documenting the moment they were experiencing, a moment that we all lived together as children displaced from the north of the strip in the schools of the center of Gaza City ».
This photo is not the image taken by Samar with which he won the World Press Photo of the year 2025. But together with that winner and now famous shot of the child without arms arrived in Doha to be treated, entitled Mahmoud Ajjour, Aged Nineeven the photo of the terror that comes from the sky will be in Palau among the 50 images on display from 8 September to 12 October, chronologically reconstructing the work of the photographer between Gaza and the days of Doha along three thematic strands, painfully split by the temporal caesura of 7 October 2023. The daily life of Gaza City before the conflict, with its social rites, the beaches, the free time and the places of the live and crowded. story of the drama of the conflict, the loss of normality, the tragedy of death and destruction of the Palestinian community. The third section (taken from the service published by New York Timesin November 2024 with the title Out of Gaza), tells directly and dramaticly of the consequences of the war, portraying seriously injured people in Gaza who, despite serious permanent damage and disabling mutilations, managed to reach Qatar and receive medical care to survive.
Samar Abu Elouf is coming to Italy from Doha where he lives in a forced exile. “I live constantly between the wait and anxiety, just waiting to return, even if Gaza is reduced to rubble, to reunite with my family”.
How he selected the images that they will tell with his intimate, profound and radical gaze, one of the most catastrophic dramas of the century.
«I chose the photos based on the difficulties that Gaza is going through and on the people who live there and who love life. Before the war they conducted a simple life, despite the blockade and the repeated wars that surrounded them constantly, and despite the noises of the bombings they lived, they still had their lives, their moments of joy and their challenge at all harsh conditions. During the war, the images reflect their survival attempts, despite having lost their families, their homes and everything they had. Yet, every time, their decision to survive was guided by their love for life. After the war, the photos portray these people who have lived all those phases, bringing the signs of the war on their bodies and souls, signs that will remain with them throughout their lives. It is a struggle for survival and a testimony of love for Gaza ».
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The curator of the exhibition, Nanni Angeli, also chose it as a woman, to represent a different point of view from the male one. Do you think that being a woman led her to photograph her, and therefore to testify, what she saw in Gaza in a different way from how her male colleagues would have done?
«All of us in Gaza, photographers men or women we are, we document The reality of suffering. But perhaps, in reality, when I take a photo, I put all my emotions and I try even before capturing the image: for me they are never ordinary images. I take the photos, but I never forget the emotions that I experienced at that moment, the voices of the people around me and the smells I perceived. And I feel these sensations again when the audience looks at the photos and remains moved. “
Being a woman photographer in Gaza and Palestine: how difficult is it, as a woman, practice this profession in this land and in a war context?
«As a woman, I didn’t encounter particular difficulties because I knew what my goal was. At the beginning of my journey I had to face some challenges posed by the company, but they were manageable and overcome. However, the real obstacle, the difficulty that shocked my life, was the persecution of journalistswho forced me to make the most difficult decisions of my life. Not for fear of death, but for concern for the life of my family. This eventually led me to leave my photojournalist job in order not to risk losing any of them because of my profession ».
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After October 7 he left his home and lived in a jeep in order to testify what was happening in Gaza. His house was then destroyed by an air attack. How can it find a balance between personal security and the urgency to testify?
«I am fully convinced of the importance of continuity, not of death. It is not afraid of death: I don’t fear it during my work, nor do I think about it. I always learned that I could have lost my life at any time during my career as a photojournalist, given the dangers of the profession. However, I tried as much as possible to comply with the safety rules to continue transmitting the image. And even if I am not documenting now, I consider this period as a moment of rest, learning and renewal, an opportunity to grow further and move on to a more advanced phase of documentation of the stories in the future. But the difference in this war is that I had never learned in any security course on security how to protect myself when I was myself the target, simply because I am a photojournalist ».
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In the photos he publishes on his Instagram page, there are many images of traditional Palestinian food as a report of the deprivation imposed on citizens. Food for the Palestinians, as for Italians, is not only a source of nourishment, but also of socialization and sharing. How long does this aspect of your life is missing in Gaza?
«When I was out of Gaza for a whole year, I did not cook and I didn’t even dared to do it, because food in our life of Palestinians is part of our identity and culture. Outside Gaza there is no food like what I ate and saved there, especially during family meetings with my mother and my sisters and the dishes we shared. Now I miss all this and it is painful for me to see all those types of food while my family is experiencing a real famine. Now I only eat to not die, food no longer has any flavor ».
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How do you remember on October 7th? And how has your life changed since that day?
«It was certainly not a normal day, and perhaps one of the most violent days I’ve ever lived. I woke up at the sound of the rockets that were launched from all over Gaza frantically: the noise was terrifying. I haven’t returned home since that day; I went out to make a journalistic report because I knew that what was about to happen would be devastating, based on my 15 years of experience in journalism. But I never imagined leaving Gaza, and this was the most painful experience. I have not yet managed to overcome it, and now I live simply while waiting to be able to return once again ».
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He met many personal stories particularly difficult to tell. Is there a face, a moment, that has remained imprinted more than others?
“Yes, it was when I photographed the baby Khaled Joudeh While he said goodbye to his mother’s bodies, his father, brother and sister, being the only survivor. When I met him again and asked him what he wanted him to take him, he asked me shyly some chocolate. The chocolate was not available on the market, but I managed to find some sugar -free chocolate suitable for the diet and brought it. Shortly thereafter, Khaled was killed in another air attack, reaching his mother and family ».
Source: Vanity Fair
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