But the photos and video of him, wounded and covered in dust yet sitting so silently, reveal a deeper truth.
When you look at Omran’s face, this bloodied, impassive face, it hits you that the boy is so traumatized that even as he pulled his hand away with his own blood, he doesn’t react, he just doesn’t respond. This is now what it looks like to be lucky, as a child, in Syria.
To be lucky means that you are pulled out of the rubble after a 45-minute search. You’ve been alone, in the dark, but you’re pulled out alive.
Photos: Children of conflct
Mahmud Rslan/Anadolu/Getty Images
2016: Aleppo, Syria -- Five-year-old Omran Daqneesh waits shell-shocked in the back of an ambulance. He and other members of his family were injured when airstrikes ripped through his neighborhood in August. The photo inspired international grief and put a face on Syria's ongoing civil war.
Photos: Heartbreaking images following Aleppo airstrike
Photos: Children of conflct
Nilufer Demir/AFP/Getty Images
2015: Bodrum, Turkey -- An arresting image of a migrant child's dead body washed up on a Turkish beach served as a tragic reminder of the risks faced by Syrian refugees. The photo also became a touchstone for discussions about how Europe and other countries should approach the refugee crisis.
Photos: Children of conflct
TYLER HICKS/The New York Times
2014: Gaza City -- A man carries a child as another lies dead after an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza City beach in July 2014. At least four boys, ages 9 to 11, were killed. The Israeli military investigated the tragedy and reported that the location of the attack was known to be a compound of Hamas police and naval forces. "Tragically, in the wake of the incident it became clear that the outcome of the attack was the death of four children who had entered the military compound for reasons that remain unclear," the report stated.
Photos: Children of conflct
Chris Hondros/Getty Images
2005: Tal Afar, Iraq -- In a time when truly resonant war photos were hard to come by due to the dangerous climate in Iraq, a photographer captured a truly wrenching moment. The girl is Samar Hassan, screaming and spattered with blood after her parents were mistakenly killed and her brother was wounded by U.S. troops. The image was widely used to represent the true civilian cost of international conflict.
Photos: Children of conflct
JEAN-MARC BOUJU/AP
2003: Najaf, Iraq -- An Iraqi prisoner of war comforts his son in a POW holding zone. The emotional image won the 2003 World Press Photo award.
Photos: Children of conflct
Damir Sagolj/Reuters
2003: Central Iraq -- A U.S. Navy hospital corpsman holds an Iraqi boy. Confused front-line crossfire ripped apart an Iraqi family. This moment of compassion was captured barely a year after the official start of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Photos: Children of conflct
Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
2001: Quetta, Pakistan -- Seven-year-old Fermina Bibi, from Kandahar, Afghanistan, lies wounded in a hospital bed. She and her brother were injured when their home in Kandahar was bombed. They were transported to Pakistan for treatment.
Photos: Children of conflct
Nick Ut/AP
1972: Trang Bang, South Vietnam -- Nine-year-old Kim Phuc wails in agony as she and her fellow villagers flee a napalm attack. This unflinching look into the horrors of the Vietnam War earned a Pulitzer Prize. Phuc survived, and eventually started her own foundation to aid child victims of war.
In that moment of seeing Omran, so many of us were reminded of the image of another Syrian little boy, Alan Kurdi, who wasn’t lucky. The image of Alan Kurdi’s lifeless three-year-old body being brought out of the Mediterranean sea last year. He drowned with his mother and brother as the family tried to reach Europe.
At the time, I think we all thought that that has to be the most difficult of choices: either stay in Syria, stay under the bombardment and the barrel bombs, stay inside the besieged zones or leave and risk the sea, risk the crossing, risk that your child is not going to make it to the other side alive.
Photos: Young refugee's body washes ashore in Turkey
From Tima Kurdi/Facebook
The body of a 2-year-old boy who washed ashore in Turkey was identified as Alan Kurdi, seen here, left, with his brother, Galip, who also drowned. The boys and their mother, Rehen, died during a treacherous journey across the Mediterranean Sea in September 2015 to escape war-torn Syria. The boys' aunt, Tima Kurdi, who lives in Canada, posted this image to Facebook.
Photos: Heartbreaking images following Aleppo airstrike
Photos: Young refugee's body washes ashore in Turkey
DOGAN NEWS AGENCY/EPA/LANDOV
Authorities stand near Alan's lifeless body on September 2, 2015. This photo went viral around the world, often with a Turkish hashtag that means "Flotsam of Humanity."
Photos: Young refugee's body washes ashore in Turkey
DHA/AP
An officer in Bodrum, Turkey, carries Alan's body away from the shore on September 2, 2015. The child was one of 12 refugees who drowned during a failed attempt to sail to the Greek island of Kos.
Photos: Young refugee's body washes ashore in Turkey
Isa Terli/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
People carry a coffin during the funeral for Alan, Galip and the boys' mother, Rehen, in Kobani, Syria, on Friday, September 4, 2015. Alan's father brought their bodies back from Turkey for burial in the city they had fled.
Photos: Young refugee's body washes ashore in Turkey
Isa Terli/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
People stand near the coffins during the burial ceremony in Kobani on September 4, 2015.
Photos: Young refugee's body washes ashore in Turkey
Isa Terli/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Abdullah Kurdi, the boys' father and widower of Rehen, mourns during the funeral in Kobani on September 4, 2015.
Photos: Young refugee's body washes ashore in Turkey
Isa Terli/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Men dig graves for the three coffins in Kobani on September 4, 2015.
Photos: Young refugee's body washes ashore in Turkey
DICLE NEWS AGENCY/EPA/LANDOV
Kurdi holds Alan's body before burying him in Kobani on September 4, 2015.
Photos: Young refugee's body washes ashore in Turkey
DICLE NEWS AGENCY/EPA/LANDOV
One of the coffins gets lowered into the ground September 4, 2015, in Kobani.
But now when we speak to parents inside Aleppo and other besieged cities in Syria, they tell us it’s not a choice any more. Even that choice – as stark as it is – is no longer available to parents inside Syria because they feel that Europe has closed its doors to them.