Palestinian photographer Mohammad Salem has won the World Press Photo contest for Asia for his photograph, “A Palestinian Woman Embraces the Body of Her Niece”.

The photograph, which has been seen around the world, shows Palestinian woman Inas Abu Maamar, 36, embracing the body of her five-year-old niece Saly, who was killed in an Israeli strike, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 17, 2023, according to Al Jazeera.

Salem said taking the photograph in the Nasser Hospital morgue “was a powerful and a sad moment”.

“I felt the picture sums up the broader sense of what was happening in the Gaza Strip,” he said.

“People were confused, running from one place to another, anxious to know the fate of their loved ones, and this woman caught my eye as she was holding the body of the little girl and refused to let go.”