Reference :
V-P-IL-E-03353
Date :
2019
Caption :
Gaza, Rafah. Bassem al-Dukhni kicks the ball during training for the Rafah Amputee Champions team in a football field in his city. The league was established with the support of the ICRC as a means to provide a positive outlet for Gazan amputees. Bassem was wounded by an explosive bullet that led to him losing one of his lower limbs and has since lived in a dire financial situation.
Confidentiality level :
public
Publication restrictions :
publication without restrictions
Description :
ICRC website, photo gallery, 02.12.2019.
More than a hundred people have had limbs amputated after being injured in border demonstrations in Gaza. These violent events have been extensively photographed, but the long-term impact they have had on individual people and Gazan society as a whole has remained unexplored.
In “The Loss”, a haunting photo essay developed in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Gazan photographer Abed Zagout sheds light on individual struggles to overcome disability and trauma, while also showing the larger implications of the 2018 crisis.
Socially isolated, a group of amputees in Rafah became friends. They share pain and bitterness, but also defy disability, finding fulfilment and happiness in their lives. An amputee football league, established by the ICRC, provides them with a positive outlet for their aspirations and frustrations.
Through his photographs, Abed shows beautiful and tender moments of parenthood, friendship and solitude. These moments and feelings, so universal and relatable, make a stark contrast with the painful reality of life in Gaza under occupation, punctuated by repeated cycles of violence.
Resolution :
4000x2670
Orientation :
landscape
Colour/B&W :
black and white
