Gaza Strip Wedding

Photos by Khalil Hamra Like dozens of other couples who got married this summer in the isolated Gaza Strip, for Saed and Falasteen Abu Aser, their wedding was an elaborately planned celebration, complete with a procession through the streets of their neighborhood.

Colorful Gaza

Photos by Hatem Moussa The Shati refugee camp in Gaza City has always been a symbol of poverty, a grey concrete jungle with 87,000 people packed into half a square kilometer, or about one fifth of a square mile.

Despondent Gazans Return to Destroyed Homes

Photos by Khalil Hamra Despondent over the slow pace of post-war reconstruction, displaced Gazans have begun to return to their damaged homes, patching up the structures with cinder blocks and plastic sheets and living in the unstable and unsafe buildings while they wait for promised aid to arrive.

Close Up: Photographer Ben Curtis

Ben Curtis is The Associated Press’ East Africa photographer based in Nairobi, Kenya.

APTOPIX Roundup: Oct. 17, 2014

Throughout the day, Associated Press photo editors comb through and designate a selection of the most newsworthy and visually breathtaking images as APTOPIX.

Close Up: Photographer Hatem Moussa

Hatem Moussa joined The Associated Press as a photojournalist in 1998. Since then, the Gaza City-based Moussa has covered repeated rounds of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in Gaza, including the wars of 2008-2009, 2012 and 2014.