Image of Two Gaza Children Killed in Israeli Attack Wins World Press Photo Prize

Haunting photo of Palestinian children's funeral

Photographer Paul Hansen, of the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter, has won the 56th World Press Photo for a picture of a group of men carrying the bodies of a young brother and sister through a street in Gaza City. The children were killed in an Israeli missile strike last fall.

"The strength of the pictures lies in the way it contrasts the anger and sorrow of the adults with the innocence of the children. It's a picture I will not forget," says Mayu Mohanna, a jury member at this year's World Press Photo photojournalism contest. In the image, two-year-old Suhaib Hijazi and her three-year-old brother Muhammad are being taken to a mosque for the burial ceremony, after they were killed when their house was destroyed by an Israeli missile strike. "Their father's body is carried behind on a stretcher [and] their mother was put in intensive care," says the Amsterdam-based World Press Photo . "The picture was made on November 20, 2012 in Gaza City, Palestinian Territories."

World Press Photo, one of photojournalism's most prestigious contests, issued awards in nine categories to 54 photographers of 32 nationalities.

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