Photo of slain, mostly naked Jewish woman Hamas paraded in truck on Oct. 7 part of prize-winning images — and outrage erupts



Outrage has erupted after the photo of a mostly naked, slain Jewish woman Hamas paraded in a truck amid the Oct. 7 terror attacks against Israel was included in a group of images that won a prestigious photography award.

The victim was Shani Louk, a 23-year-old German-Israeli tattoo artist, and the Associated Press photo of Louk's body in the back of a truck surrounded by armed militants was the first image in a group of AP photos titled "Israel Hamas War" that won first place in Pictures of the Year International's Team Picture Story of the Year category.

While the image in question was still available to view on the POY site Friday, it was not on the POY's Instagram page Friday, which is displaying dozens of winning images.

But that Instagram image seems to have been captured before it apparently was deleted. The X post below shows a redacted version of it:

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"This premiere category recognizes the collaborative effort of a photography staff covering a single topic or news story," the Team Picture Story of the Year category description reads. "It is a narrative picture story that consists of images taken as part of a team effort to cover a single issue or news story."

Here's the caption of Ali Mahmud's AP photo; Louk is mentioned in the last sentence:

"The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land, and sea and catching the country off-guard on a major holiday. Israel's retaliation after Gaza's militant Hamas rulers launched the unprecedented attack on Israel killing over 1,200 Israelis and taking captive dozens, has been fierce for Gaza and it’s [sic] people. Heavy Israeli airstrikes on the enclave has killed thousands of Palestinians. Palestinian militants drive back to the Gaza Strip with the body of Shani Louk, a German-Israeli dual citizen, during their cross-border attack on Israel, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023."

The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism runs the POY awards, self-described as the world’s oldest photojournalism competition, the New York Post reported.

How are people reacting?

As you might guess, a number of observers are outraged that the photo won an award:

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What did POY have to say?

The Post reported that Pictures of the Year International officials said the selection of photos in question expressed “the greater emotions related to the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza.”

“This year and every year, the photos in the competition are selected by a panel of professional journalists tasked with identifying compelling representations of the significant news events of the year,” POY director Lynden Steele said in a statement, the paper said. “While we understand the reactions to the pictures, we also believe that photojournalism plays an important role in bringing attention to the harsh realities of war."

Anything else?

Fox News noted a Jewish Chronicle report saying, "In February, the families of Louk and other Nova massacre victims sued AP and Reuters for what they alleged to be the involvement of photojournalists employed by those agencies in the atrocities of October 7."

But the AP released a statement Feb. 22 responding to the lawsuit from the National Jewish Advocacy Center, defending its coverage of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, Fox News reported.

"AP had no advance knowledge of the October 7 attacks, nor have we seen any evidence — including in the lawsuit — that the freelance journalists who contributed to our coverage did," AP's vice president of corporate communication, Lauren Easton, wrote in a statement, according to the cable network. "Allegations like this are reckless and create even more potential danger for journalists in the region."

Fox News added that the statement continued, "Documenting breaking news events around the world — no matter how horrific — is our job. Without AP and other news organizations, the world would not have known what was happening on October 7."

Hamas Hostage Shani Louk Confirmed Dead After Festival Kidnapping, Skull Pieces ID'd: Israeli Gov'twww.youtube.com

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HUNDREDS of WANTED terrorists just crossed into the US



The mainstream media will have you under the impression that every individual who crosses our border is doing so to seek asylum.

However, statistics reveal otherwise.

Hundreds of individuals on the FBI watch list have crossed into the country. Additionally, thousands of “special interest aliens” are confirmed to have entered the U.S., potentially leaving the nation vulnerable to a future terrorist attack.

Bill Melugin of Fox News cited these stats in a tweet, noting that as recently as 2019, there were as few as zero arrests of suspects on the FBI’s terror watch list at the southern border.

In 2022, there were 98. In 2023, the number has skyrocketed to 151 — but the year isn’t over yet.

There have also been over 1.5 million known "gotaways" since the start of 2021.

Sara Gonzales is concerned as to what this means for America’s future.

“If you’re Hamas or Hezbollah or any of these many terrorist organizations,” Gonzales begins, “they want to wipe us off the face of the planet. Let’s be frank here.”

“And you’re going to go through the trouble of coordinating this attack on Israel with the paragliders and the bombs and the, you know, pushing explosives on the border wall,” she continues.

“You don’t think they’re going to buy a plane ticket into Mexico and walk right across the damn border where it’s just open?”

She notes that in addition, Border Patrol is of course capable of reciting the stats on how many they’ve caught, but they can’t tell us how many terrorists they haven’t caught.

Blaze Media editor in chief Matt Peterson agrees.

“There’s 200-some countries in the world, and the only border that I see people unwilling on the right and left to send the United States military to is our own,” Peterson says.

“If you invite millions of people unvetted to come into your nation, you will destroy your country.”


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A 27-year-old Palestinian terrorist went on a shooting rampage in Bnei Brak Tuesday night, firing at people who were out walking, riding bikes, or driving their cars in the suburb. Two police officers shot the terrorist dead, but not before he claimed the lives of several people. One of the two officers sustained injuries and later died in the hospital, the Times of Israel reported.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group within the Palestinian nationalist socialist political party Fatah, claimed responsibility for the violence in a video. The terrorists said they had sent "a clear message written in blood in response to the Negev summit," referring to the recent meeting with leaders from four Arab countries and the United States hosted by Israel earlier this week.

The foreign ministers of Morocco, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain, U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Israeli officials participated in the summit. The meeting was called "treacherous" by the terrorists of Hezbollah in Lebanon and was also opposed by Islamic factions in Gaza, reports said.

On Sunday, ISIS took credit for two other recent terror attacks in Israel — a stabbing attack in Beersheba on March 22 that left four Israelis dead and a shooting in Hadera on March 27 where two police officers were killed.

Israeli authorities are investigating whether the three attacks were coordinated or whether the perpetrators acted independently, according to Fox News.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Wednesday that his nation "stands before a wave of murderous Arab terrorism."

"My heart goes out to the families who lost their loved ones tonight, and I pray for the well-being of the wounded," he tweeted. "The security forces are working. We will fight terror with perseverance, stubbornness and an iron fist. They will not move us from here."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also condemned the attack in a statement reported by the Wafa news agency

"The killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians will only lead to further deterioration of the situation and instability, which we all strive to achieve, especially as we are approaching the holy month of Ramadan and Christian and Jewish holidays," he said, according to the Guardian.

He added that the violence "confirms that permanent, comprehensive and just peace is the shortest way to provide security and stability for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples."

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