GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinian photojournalist Ashraf Amra is pleading with international human rights organizations, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate to be allowed to travel from the Gaza Strip to Moscow to receive a journalism award.

Amra, a resident of the Deir el-Balah refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, won second place in the Top News category in the Andrei Stenin International Photo Contest on Aug. 4. The contest was organized by the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency under the auspices of the UNESCO commission of the Russian Federation. More than 7,000 photographers from 71 countries participated.

Amra's career in photojournalism started in 2002. He worked with several local news websites and was a reporter for several local radio stations. He also worked as a freelance photographer selling photos to such international news agencies as Reuters and AFP. He is now a photographer for APA images, an independent Palestinian photojournalism agency.

He told Al-Monitor, “I have tried to travel to Moscow to receive my award at the award ceremony scheduled to be held on Aug. 30, but so far I am unable to travel due to the tight closure policy imposed on the Gaza Strip by Egypt and Israel. I am afraid I will not be able to receive my award and will be denied the opportunity to represent my country in this prestigious ceremony.”