The Reuters photographer Muhammad Salem won the prestigious 2024 World Press Photo award on Thursday for her image of a Palestinian woman holding the body of her five-year-old niece in the Gaza Strip. The image was taken on October 17, 2023 at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, where families searched for dead relatives during the Israeli bombings of the Palestinian enclave.

Salem’s winning image portrays Inas Abu Maamar, 36 years oldsobbing whileHe holds Saly’s body, covered with sheets, in the hospital morgue. Announcing its annual awards, the Amsterdam-based WorldPress Photo Foundation said it was important to recognize the dangers faced by journalists covering conflicts.

According to the Foundation, 99 journalists and media employees have died while covering the war between Israel and Hamas. Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director of the organization, said: “The work of press photographers and documentary filmmakers around the world is often carried out at high risk.”

Salem, 39-year-old Palestinianhas worked for Reuters since 2003. He was also awarded at the 2010 World Press Photo Competition. The jury said that Salem’s 2024 winning image was “composed with care and respectoffering both a metaphorical and literal vision of unimaginable loss.”

“I thought the photo summed up the broader sense of what was happening in the Gaza Strip,” Salem said when the image was first published in November. “People were confused, running from one place to another, anxious to know the fate of her loved ones, and this woman caught my attention as she held the girl’s body and refused to let go.”