The World Press Photo contest's Photo of the Year award went to the image of a Palestinian woman embracing the body of her niece, who was killed along with her mother and sister when an Israeli missile hit their home, the organization announced on Thursday.

Captured by Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem in the morgue of a hospital in the Gaza Strip, the image shows Inas Abu Maamar, 36, hugging the body of her five-year-old niece Saly, already wrapped in a white sheet, after she was killed in her home in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip.

"The jury was deeply moved by the way this image evokes an emotional reflection in each viewer. Composed with care and respect, it offers a metaphorical and literal glimpse into an unimaginable loss," reads the statement released about the image taken days after the photographer himself became a father.