Two Palestinian photojournalists based in Gaza have won Awards of Excellence at the 76th Pictures of the Year International (POYI) from the Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Missouri, in the United States.
Congratulations to Mohammed Asad & Mohammed Salem on your photographic 'Awards of Excellence' & our love to the wounded, but resilient children. We promise to continue sailing to #Gaza to help end this human made catastrophe. @PicoftheYear @RJI @WeAreNotNumbers @DCIPalestine pic.twitter.com/rifdMZPETj
— Freedom Flotilla (@GazaFFlotilla) February 15, 2019
Mohammad Salem Jadallah, a photojournalist with Reuters news agency, won the Award of Excellence for the General News category for a photograph of a group of Palestinian boys weeping for their dead brother at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after he was killed by Israeli army gunfire at the Gaza border with Israel last June.
Palestinian photographers Mohamed Asad and Mohamed Salem win the prestigious Picture of the Year Awards International in (POYI). A winning picture shows family members crying over the killing of their brother by the Israeli army in last year's #GazaReturnMarch pic.twitter.com/C81Okgjwow
— Palestine in the UK (@PalMissionUK) February 14, 2019
In the same category, Mohammad Asad, a freelance photojournalist who works with the Middle East Monitor (MEMO), also won the Award of Excellence in the same category for his picture of a 12-year-old child, Faris Sirsawi, as he held on to a stretcher while paramedics tried to evacuate him after he was shot in the chest by Israeli fire at the Gaza border area with Israel. The boy died shortly after.
The Palestinian journalist from Gaza Mohammed Jadallah, a Reuters photographer, is the winner of the International News of America (POYI)#GroupPalestine#قروب_فلسطيني pic.twitter.com/6hkJzHBX6I
— ? Rose Islam ? (@Rose__pales) February 14, 2019
On December 21, that same year, Israeli army snipers shot Asad in his upper body, MEMO reported. However, the bullet fatally struck a 16-year-old boy, Mohammed Jahjouh, in the neck, and hit Asad’s camera which absorbed the impact. Asad and 24 others were wounded by Israeli gunfire in the same incident, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Congrats to @intifada contributor Mohammed Asad who won Picture of the Year Award of Excellence for this tragic, difficult photo documenting child Faris al-Sarsawi in his last moments of life after an Israeli sniper fatally shot him in Gaza last October. https://t.co/S2ogtOaQar pic.twitter.com/dJ0Z7Uxd6b
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) February 14, 2019
The two men were granted the award Tuesday, February 12, at the journalism school at Missouri University which is hosting the awards event, colloquially referred to as Mizzou, considered one of the most prestigious journalism schools internationally.
POYI is one of the oldest and most prestigious photojournalism programs and competitions in the world. Winning photographs are typically displayed in New York City exhibitions.
(TeleSur, PC, Social Media)
