The American photographer Heidi Levine, who is based in Jerusalem, has been chosen by the International Women’s Media Foundation to receive the inaugural Anja Niedringhaus courage in photojournalism award for her work in Gaza. The judging panel said: “Living in the region and raising her three children, Heidi Levine experiences the story on both a professional and very personal level, facing the same dangers as her subjects in a war zone, with rocket fire and air strikes a consistent reminder. Unlike many journalists who can cover a story and get on a plane to the safety of their own homeland, she is an integral part of the community and has shown profound concern for people, even moving her Palestinian assistant days before their home was reduced to rubble and putting down the camera to hug an anguished mother.”

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  9 July 2014Family members pray by the bodies of Amir, Mustafa Arief and Mohammed during their funeral in Sajeria. The brothers were killed together near their home, allegedly by an Israeli drone strike Photograph: Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex

  

  16 July 2014Women mourn during the funeral of boys killed by an Israeli naval bombardment in the port of Gaza photograph: Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex

  

  18 July 2014Netream Netzleam holds the body of her daughter Razel, one, who medics said died from injuries sustained in an Israeli air strike the previous day, at her funeral in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip Photograph: Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex

  

  20 July 2014Palestinian men run with a white flag in the Shejaia neighbourhood, which was heavily shelled by Israel during fighting Photograph: Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex

  

  8 August 2014A Palestinian woman looks out over a scene of destruction in Shujayea Photograph: Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex

  

  22 July 2014Rawya abu Jom’a, 17, at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Rawya was wounded when two Israeli air strikes hit her family’s apartment. Three of her cousins and her sister were killed in the strike Photograph: Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex

  

  11 August 2014Hadil Amar, 21, uses her tablet to photograph herself with the damage to her family’s home in Tel al Hawa in central Gaza. The family fled their home after it was hit with a warning rocket by an Israeli drone just before it was targeted by Israeli warplanes. Witnesses said the home was hit twice Photograph: Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex

  

  15 August 2014Mousa Sweidan, 50, walks in one of the rooms of his father’s damaged home in the Shejaia neighbourhood of Gaza City. The family of 15 people fled from their home and took shelter in a UN school when Israeli tanks entered the area. Mousa used to work in Israel as a painter until 2005 and is now unemployed Photograph: Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex

   

  4 November 2014Palestinian bride Anaan El Harazen, 24, sits in the damaged salon of her family’s home as she waits to pose for pictures with family members before her groom comes to take her away for their wedding in the Shijaiyah neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City Photograph: Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex

  

  30 December 2014Mustafa Majedah, 19, is carried by his friend Mohammed as they arrive for his rehabilitation session at the Artificial Limbs and Polio Centre in Gaza City. Mustafa lost his legs when a bomb exploded outside his home in Khan Younis Photograph: Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex

  

  20 January 2015Wounded Wael al-Namlah, 26, and his wife, Asraah, watch their three year-old son Sharif crawl on the carpet at their home in Rafa, Gaza. Namlah and his son each lost a leg in an Israeli rocket strike Photograph: Heidi Levine/SIPA/Rex

  

  Heidi Levine at work in Jerusalem

  Photograph: Warrick Page/International Women’s Media Foundation/AP