The Albert Londres jury hailed Kaval's reports from the "Syrian hell", published in October 2019, featuring a series of portraits "imbued with humanity".
His coverage and analysis of the "slow death of jihadist prisoners" held in inhumane conditions in Kurdish centres in northeastern Syria also won him the prestigious Bayeux award for war correspondents and the Ouest-France Jean Marin Prize.
Kaval remains in hospital after he was seriously wounded in October while reporting on the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
'Teamwork'
"I'm incredibly honoured," Kaval told AFP news agency. "But behind each report there are around 10 people who are not given credit for their absolutely essential contributions.
"This really is teamwork," he said, naming one photographer, Laurence Geai, who accompanied him in Syria.
The 82nd Albert Londres prize is the third consecutive year that Le Monde has won the "French Pulitzer", after Benoît Vitkine (Moscow correspondant) et Elise Vincent (jihadist terror specialist).
Hat trick pour @lemondefr et pour Allan aussi après @PrixBayeux et prix Ouest-France pour correspondants de guerre
— AlainSalles (@sallesleMonde) December 5, 2020
Sylvain Louvet and Ludovic Gaillard won the audiovisual prize for their documentary “Seven billion suspects”, which underscores the dangers of mass surveillance, from Nice in southern France, to Israel and China.
The Book Prize was awarded to travel writer Cédric Gras for Stalin's Mountaineers, a two-year investigation into the fate of the Abalakov brothers, who climbed peaks across the Caucasus and Central Asia to glorify the Soviet Union before themselves falling victim to Joseph Stalin's Great Purge.
