A special courage under fire

Anja Niedringhaus, who died last year. Peter Dejong / AP Photos

Palestinian men run with a white flag in the Shujaia neighbourhood, which was heavily shelled by Israel during fighting in Gaza City in July last year.

Palestinians collect religious books from the rubble of Al Qassam Mosque in the Gaza Strip’s Nuseirat camp on July 9, a day when Israeli warplanes carried out 30 airstrikes.

Hidya Atash looks at the destruction of Shujaia from the top floor of her home, which was hit in July last year by a warning rocket. The family of 40 fled. Photos Heidi Levine for The National

Heidi Levine, The National's photographer for the 50-day Israeli war in Gaza last year, has had her work honoured

When Heidi Levine accepted her first assignment in Israel in 1983, she expected it to be a one-year experience.

More than 30 years later, the American mother of three continues to cover the Palestinian struggle as one of the world’s leading conflict photographers.

Now a selection of her work, taken for The National, has won one of the world’s top prizes for photojournalism.

As announced today, Levine has been awarded the inaugural Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award by the International Women’s Foundation.

The prize is named after the Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer Niedringhaus, who was killed in Afghanistan last year when a policeman opened fire on her convoy.

Levine’s work has captured the human cost of conflict, particularly last year’s 50-day assault by the Israel armed forces that left more than 2,000 dead, most of them civilians and including many children.

In the course of her work for The National, she witnessed the horrors of Gaza through her lens, but also frequently placed her own life at risk.

The ever-present threat of being misidentified by drones meant she rarely carried a long lens. She has also lost colleagues and friends on assignments that included Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Her work also comes with a personal price. Her grandmother died during the Gaza assignment, and she must deal with her dual role as a mother and her children’s concerns for her safety.

“I can honestly say there have been moments that I had wished I were stopped because, yes, it is scary and dangerous,” she said in an interview last year with The Women’s Eye.

“My only explanation as to why I do this would be to say I feel that I can best describe this drive as a sort of calling.