NEW YORK: Three powerful features highlighting the human toll of the Gaza genocide won major honors at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards on Friday night. The awards recognized stories that offered deeply personal perspectives from the besieged territory, winning in categories for Outstanding Light Feature – Long Form, Outstanding Hard News Feature – Short Form, and Outstanding News Discussion & Analysis – Editorial and Opinion.
Business Insider’s documentary The Man Who Feeds Gaza’s Children won the Outstanding Light Feature – Long Form award. The 19-minute film follows Gazan food blogger Hamada Shaqoura, who began cooking for displaced families and children after the events of October 7, 2023, amid Israel’s ongoing military operations.
Shaqoura, known on Instagram for his silent, focused cooking videos, has over 600,000 followers. In this rare documentary appearance, he opens up about his mission — using food as a form of resistance and cultural preservation. The documentary captures him preparing dishes that evoke memories of life before the war, including croissants, tacos, and traditional Palestinian meals.
“We won an Emmy,” Shaqoura wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “This film told a small part of my story… I cooked under bombs, not for recognition, but because hunger doesn’t wait. Gaza deserves to be seen.” He dedicated the win to the children who lined up for food, the families who shared meals with love, and the people of Gaza whose stories demand to be heard.
In the Outstanding Hard News Feature – Short Form category, The New York Times won for its emotional documentary She Survived an Airstrike That Killed Her Entire Family in Gaza. The short film centres on 12-year-old Dareen al-Bayaa, one of only two survivors of an Israeli airstrike that killed dozens of her family members. She and her younger brother, Kinan, now live in Qatar, where she is undergoing treatment for severe leg fractures.
“Dareen is one of at least 17,000 children orphaned or separated from their families in Gaza,” said producer Mona El-Naggar. “What do you say to a child who asks why her parents had to die, why she’s alone, and why she wasn’t treated like other children?”
The New York Times also won Outstanding News Discussion & Analysis – Editorial and Opinion for Two Weeks Inside Gaza’s Ruined Hospitals. The video chronicles the experience of Dr. Samer Attar, an American surgeon from Chicago, who joined one of the first international medical teams to enter northern Gaza in spring 2024.
Dr. Attar’s video diaries reveal the dire conditions in facilities like Al-Awda Hospital, which was besieged, cut off from clean water, and overcrowded with both patients and staff. His footage captures the immense challenges faced by Palestinian healthcare workers operating with dangerously low supplies.
In the video, Dr. Attar calls for any future ceasefire agreement to include concrete measures to protect Gaza’s health system and save lives. “We can’t just talk about peace,” he says. “We have to act on saving what’s left.”
The wins mark a significant moment for journalism on Gaza, highlighting the impact of deeply human storytelling amid an escalating humanitarian crisis.
