A men's suit hangs in the room of a Palestinian home, waiting for its absentee owner.

A distressed Palestinian wife stares into the darkness of the room into the unknown, as she waits for the scheduled visit of her husband, who is imprisoned in Israeli prisons.

The wife of another Palestinian detainee embraces her twins, who were born after her husband's semen was smuggled out of the prison.

These are some of the stories of the photo series by the young Italian photographer Antonio Vacilongo, which won the best photo series award in the annual competition of the Dutch "World Press Photo", which is considered the highest in the world in terms of awards concerned with the photographs taken by photographers working in institutions Informational.

Italian photographer Antonio Vacilongo (the island)

"Darling"

The winning video series - called "Habibi" - deals with the issue of the Palestinian prisoners for political reasons in Israeli prisons, who are estimated to be about 4 thousand and 200 prisoners, and who are serving various punishments, some of which reach more than 20 years, as is the case of the Palestinian Nael Barghouti, whose wife hangs his suit In his room.

Barghouti was imprisoned in 1978 on charges of plotting against the Israeli state, then he was released in 2011, and then the occupation authorities arrested him again in 2014, bringing the total of the years he spent in prison to 40 years.

The picture shows the sadness and isolation of the wife, who alone faces the difficulties of life in the absence of the captive husband (Photo by Antonio Vaccilongo)

The Italian photographer conveys with great intimacy the pain of the families of Palestinian detainees, especially women who have been waiting for years for the return of absentee husbands and fathers, and who endure difficult life conditions outside prison, and sometimes bear the responsibility of caring for their families, amid harsh economic conditions.

The winning photos are concerned with the details of the preparations for visiting the detainees, which have turned into rituals by the families, despite the great stress that these families are subjected to, and despite the humiliation that these families are subjected to from the Israeli authorities that hinder and make the visits difficult.

Among the pictures - which convey what happens during the days of visiting Palestinian detainees - a picture of a mother embracing her son on the bus that was transporting them to the place of imprisonment of the husband and the father of that child, and another of Palestinian women of different ages, as they walked on the way to the prison that housed their detained loved ones.

A mother and son on the bus on their way to prison to visit a prisoner (Photo by Antonio Vacilongo)

Sperm smuggling

The case of smuggling the semen of Palestinian detainees is featured in the winning photo series.

The Italian photographer took pictures of Palestinian children born this way.

It is known that long prison sentences and harsh detention conditions have pushed some Palestinian prisoners' families to the method of artificial insemination for reproduction, where the semen is smuggled into Palestinian prisoners in various ways, and the artificial insemination is carried out abroad.

Through this method, dozens of Palestinian children were born while their fathers were in prison, and some of these children reached the age of 10 years and over.

A Palestinian mother with her twin sons who were born through IVF (Photo by Antonio Vacilongo)

Among the winning photos - which are concerned with the issue of children who were born while their fathers are still in prison - an image showing a child who was just born, still in a medical device, and another hand holding a phone showing a picture of a child who was celebrating his seventh birthday, and he was also born from IVF He was outside prison, while his father is still detained today.

A child just born in Gaza from the IVF of a prison detainee's father (Photo by Antonio Vaccilongo)

Italian photographer in Palestine

Italian photographer Antonio Vacilongo spent long periods in the Palestinian territories, traveling from the West Bank to Gaza, and photographed the effects of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the lives of ordinary people.

The World Press Photo Foundation - located in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam - is one of the oldest institutions in the world concerned with photography. It was founded in 1955, and since 2011, it has been organizing an international competition for photographs taken by photographers working in press institutions.

Women and children on the way to visit their loved ones in prison (Photo by Antonio Vacilongo)

The Foundation organizes an exhibition of the winning photos every year in Amsterdam, and the exhibition itself travels to many countries around the world.

What is striking is the presence of the Arab world in the competing images of the last decade, specifically those that dealt with the Arab Spring, the violent events that accompanied the Arab revolutions in more than one Arab country, and the mass migrations of Arab refugees to countries such as Lebanon, Turkey and Europe.