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This Chef from Gaza Wins Prestigious Award for his Content
A chef and content creator from Gaza, Hamada Shaqura, won a prestigious award for his cooking videos.
Shaqura won the 2025 James Beard broadcast Media Emerging Voice Award for his videos about cooking creative meals for children in Gaza, using ingredients from aid packages.
Before the start of the war in Gaza, Shaqura was a content creator, not a chef. However, the start of the war made him realize he had a responsibility towards the children of Gaza; therefore, he started preparing meals for them to express love and hope.
His culinary skills in war-torn Gaza and intense gaze in his videos garnered him millions of views.
In April 2024, Hamada and other Palestinian volunteers launched Watermelon Relief, dedicated to providing displaced families with meals, activities, and support. Since the launch of the relief, Hamada started cooking meals for the people in Gaza on a larger scale.
However, when Israel stopped aid from entering Gaza in March this year, Hamada has not been able to continue his relief efforts because he has been struggling to feed his own family.
Although, the Israel and US-backed organization, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, recently started limited aid distribution in the enclave, it is not sufficient for the starving population.
Since the start of GHF's aid distribution, Israel has killed over 330 Palestinians at these aid distribution sites. Despite the humanitarian crisis, Hamada Shaqura is hopeful and promises to try to continue his efforts for his people.
This article was previously published on omanmoments. To see the original article, click here
