Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem won first prize at World Press Photo. Inas Abu Maamar cradled the body of his five-year-old niece, Saly, killed along with her mother and sister by a missile that struck their home in Khan Younes in October.
South African Lee-Ann Olwage, filming for GEO magazine, won the "story of the year" prize with her intimate portrait of a Malagasy family living with an elderly parent suffering from dementia. The photo was taken 10 days after the start of the conflict, sparked by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel. It was taken at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis on October 17 when he saw Inas in tears, holding the little girl's body wrapped in a white cloth in his arms at the morgue.