--- description: For our ongoing series on the brave and tireless work of often unsung photojournalists, LightBox presents a selection of the EPA photographer's touching pictures of daily life and the human cost of conflict in the Gaza Strip. title: Wire Photographer Spotlight: Conflict and Conscience in Gaza by Ali Ali image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta83b4a99a9028c03/6987a68a428a9e1436cc9e56/03761851.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Wire Photographer Spotlight: Conflict and Conscience in Gaza by Ali Ali by [TIME Photo Department](/author/time-photo-department/) ## TIME Photo Department Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 6, 2013 8:00 AM CUT  June 26, 2013\. Palestinian children play outside their family's tent in a poverty-stricken quarter of the town of Younis, in southern Gaza Strip. June 26, 2013\. Palestinian children play outside their family's tent in a poverty-stricken quarter of the town of Younis, in southern Gaza Strip.Ali Ali—EPA by [TIME Photo Department](/author/time-photo-department/) ## TIME Photo Department Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 6, 2013 8:00 AM CUT **_Each month, LightBox profiles a notable wire photographer in recognition of the brave and tireless work of these often unsung photojournalists. In August, we acknowledge the work of Ali Ali, who shoots for EPA (European Pressphoto Agency). Below, LightBox presents a short essay by Ali about his past and current work, and his photographic ambitions._** My name is Ali Noureldine, but everyone knows me as Ali Ali. I was born in Gaza City, and grew up there and in Egypt. My brother, Fayz Nourdeldin, was an Agence France-Presse photographer and it was through him that my passion for photography began. I was at a refugee school until I graduated from high school. I went on to earn my diploma in Journalism at the Azhar University in the Gaza Strip. Before I enrolled in university, I began working at 17 as a freelance photographer for EPA in the Gaza bureau, joining the agency two years later. At 17, I photographed the Israeli invasion of the northern Gaza Strip — blood, children’s screams, men and women crying. I had never before experienced this. During the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip in 2008, I was concerned about my family because my home is in the northern regions and I had to balance between work and family. I realized that I should concentrate on what was going on in Gaza. I didn’t enter my house for 18 days. Then came the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza; it was the biggest event I had experienced since my start in photojournalism. European Pressphoto Agency charged me with the responsibility of covering the withdrawal from the northern areas, and it was a great effort. After the withdrawal, I gained experience and continued to get closer, more intimate with my storytelling while walking the alleyways of camps and the affected areas. After the Israeli war I focused on the people — the loss of entire families and how they suffered. I was trying to visit people daily, seeing how they were living before even bringing my camera into their lives, hoping that they would accept me. From then on, most of my work has been documenting news, covering the political situation in the region between the Israelis and Palestinians. But what most caught my attention was how the lives of individuals and families were continually affected by the conflict. I wanted, through my images, to show the world the human side of my people, by documenting their suffering. In 2009, I participated in a year-long World Press Photo workshop. It was an important experience for me and I put to good use what I learned there as I covered the blockade, the opening of the Egyptian border and other events. The eight-day Israeli war in 2012 was different for me because my family home was shelled while I was working. My father and my sister were injured, and words simply can’t express the feeling I had when I learned my family was in danger. Now my family and I were part of the very news that my colleagues and I were covering. But those events definitely helped me to grow and mature; they helped me become the person I am now. As a photojournalist, I admit the necessity of covering these major, and often terrible, stories. But I also adore working on feature stories. I love to see and to document the look of innocence in children’s faces, and the quiet lives of ordinary people. When I capture these sorts of things in an image, I feel great. I feel happy. Finally, I am honored to say that I have been chosen to participate in the 2013 World Press Master Class. --- **_This feature is part of TIME’s ongoing spotlight on wire photographers. See our previous profile on_** [**_Associated Press photographer Muhammed Muheisen_**](http://lightbox.time.com/2013/04/15/wire-photographer-spotlight-daily-life-by-muhammed-muheisen/ "undefined")**_._** ---  Jan. 21, 2012\. A Palestinian woman bakes bread on firewood inside her tent in one of the poorest regions in the Al-Zaiton neighborhood in the Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  Feb. 14, 2012\. A Palestinian youth pushes his bicycle along a waste dump in Al-Nusirat, central Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  March 11, 2012\. Relatives of Ayoub Asalya, 12, look at his body in the morgue of Kamal Edwan hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  May 3, 2012\. Jamela Al-Habash, a 17-year-old Palestinian girl who lost her legs, is seen in a mirror as she uses a pair of crutches to help her to walk with her artificial limbs before leaving her family's home in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  June 15, 2012\. Palestinian children stand next to the body of a horse after it was slaughtered for meat in a poor neighborhood in central Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  July 3, 2012\. Palestinian girls read the Koran at a summer camp in Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  July 22, 2012\. Palestinian refugee child plays in between makeshift tents in the Al-Zaiton neighborhood before breaking fast on the third day of the Holy month of Ramadan in Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  Nov. 17, 2012\. Palestinian mourners shout slogans during the funeral of people killed in Israeli air strikes in Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  Nov. 19, 2012\. Palestinians pray next to the bodies of members of the Dalou family during their funeral at a mosque in Gaza City. Ali Ali—EPA  December 2, 2012\. Palestinian men repair a bombed smuggling tunnel connecting the Gaza Strip and Egypt, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  Jan. 7, 2013\. Palestinian Greek Orthodox Christian altar boys attend Christmas mass at the Orthodox Saint Porfirios church in Gaza City. Ali Ali—EPA  April 7, 2013\. A Palestinian refugee boy is assisted by his elder sister as he washes himself outside their family's house in the Bait Lahiya town, northern Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  April 18, 2013\. Masked militants from the Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, take part in a march in the Al-Sheikh Redwan area in northern Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  April 28, 2013\. Palestinian refugee children play in a poverty-stricken quarter of the town of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  May 10, 2013\. A Palestinian man exercises prior to a bodybuilding contest in northern Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  May 10, 2013\. A Palestinian man prepared for a bodybuilding contest in northern Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  May 28, 2013\. A Palestinian worker holds a pot made out of kneaded mud in one of the largest pottery workshops in Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  May 29, 2013\. A Palestinian girl plays with her brothers inside their family's home on a hot day in Bait Lahiya town, northern Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  June 12, 2013\. Palestinian boys perform exercises at a summer camp run by Palestinian Islamic organization Hamas near the border between Gaza and Egypt in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  June 26, 2013\. Palestinian children play outside their family's tent in a poverty-stricken quarter of the town of Younis, in southern Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  July 11, 2013\. A Palestinian child rests as others pray and read the Koran in a mosque during the holy month of Ramadan in Gaza City. Ali Ali—EPA  July 12, 2013\. A Palestinian man prays in a mosque during the holy month of Ramadan in Gaza City. Ali Ali—EPA  July 29, 2013\. A Palestinian girl plays besides her family's tent where they live in a poverty-stricken quarter of the town of Younis town in the southern Gaza Strip. 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