Al Jazeera English channel was named ‘Broadcaster of the Year’ at the 2024 New York Festivals TV & Film Awards for the eight consecutive year, a statement said Wednesday.The channel collected an array of gold, silver and bronze medals for its news and programmes coverage. The ‘Broadcaster of the Year’ award, goes to the media organisation that wins the highest number of gold medals.The awards featured entries from over 50 countries, covering content screened on the US and international broadcasters including ITV, BBC, NBC and CBC.Al Jazeera English won a total of six gold medals, including one for its news coverage of the Sudan conflict in 2023. Al Jazeera English’s Witness’ film “Rescue Mission Gaza” also earned a gold.The other gold medals went to episodes from the Fault Lines and 101 East documentary strands. The channel also won six silver and eight bronze medals, for episodes from the news-analysis show The Listening Post and the environment-focused series “Earthrise”.“We are delighted to be named Broadcaster of the Year by the New York Festivals TV & Film Awards,” said Issa Ali, acting managing director of Al Jazeera English.Other divisions in the Al Jazeera Media Network also won top awards. The Al Jazeera Investigative Unit won three golds for its film “Gold Mafia - The Laundry Service.” Al Jazeera Digital’s explainer show “Start Here – On the Road” also won a gold.All content was screened and judged by the New York Festivals TV & Film Awards Grand Jury of over 200 producers, directors, writers and other creative media professionals from around the globe.Al Jazeera English in recent years has won three Royal Television Society awards, a Peabody and several Emmy awards, among other awards.

HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani on Wednesday reiterated Qatar's rejection of any defamation of its role in the ongoing mediation efforts to end the war in Gaza. He also indicated that Qatar is assessing its role in the mediation.During a joint press conference Wednesday with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkiye Hakan Fidan, HE Sheikh Mohammed said that negotiations for a ceasefire and the release of prisoners and hostages are at a sensitive and critical stage, and that the State of Qatar has been working since day one of the war to stop it and to release the hostages. He added that the State of Qatar has witnessed the mediation being used for narrow political interests, adding that this in turn has necessitated a comprehensive evaluation by Qatar of its role.HE Sheikh Mohammed added that Qatar engaged in the mediation process out of humanitarian, national, and patriotic considerations to protect the Palestinians. He however lamented the political exploitation by some politicians with narrow interests, marketing their electoral campaigns by defaming the role of Qatar.HE heikh Mohammed added that such statements made behind closed doors are unacceptable and damaging as they do not contribute to anything positive. He stressed the State of Qatar's commitment to its role on humanitarian grounds, but noted that there are limitations to this role and the impact it can make, noting that Qatar will take the appropriate decision at the right time regarding this.HE Sheikh Mohammed said during the press conference that the during the meeting with Fidan they discussed strategic partnership and bilateral relations between the two countries, confirming that this visit is part of continuous coordination between the two sides on regional and international issues, as it comes amidst escalating tensions and sensitive conditions in the region.He added that the visit provided an opportunity for detailed consultations on regional escalation, emphasising the need for parties to resort to de-escalation, reason, dialogue, and logical resolution of issues rather than resorting to the language of arms and violence.HE Sheikh Mohammed said that Qatar has conducted intensive communications recently with all parties to try to contain the escalation, noting that coordination between Qatar and Turkiye is ongoing and continuous, expressing appreciation for the positions adopted by the sisterly Republic of Turkiye, especially in supporting the Palestinian brothers.HE Sheikh Mohammed added that he discussed with the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs the latest developments of the war in Gaza, the deteriorating humanitarian crisis, and the ongoing Israeli actions and assaults against the Palestinians in the West Bank.

When an Israeli shell struck Gaza's largest fertility clinic in December, the explosion blasted the lids off five liquid nitrogen tanks stored in a corner of the embryology unit.As the ultra-cold liquid evaporated, the temperature inside the tanks rose, destroying more than 4,000 embryos plus 1,000 more specimens of sperm and unfertilized eggs stored at Gaza City's Al Basma IVF centre.The impact of that single explosion was far-reaching — an example of the unseen toll Israel's six-and-a-half-month-old assault has had on the 2.3mn people of Gaza.The embryos in those tanks were the last hope for hundreds of Palestinian couples facing infertility."We know deeply what these 5,000 lives, or potential lives, meant for the parents, either for the future or for the past," said Bahaeldeen Ghalayini, 73, the Cambridge-trained obstetrician and gynaecologist who established the clinic in 1997.At least half of the couples — those who can no longer produce sperm or eggs to make viable embryos — will not have another chance to get pregnant, he said."My heart is divided into a million pieces," he said.Asked Wednesday by Reuters about the incident, the Israeli military's press desk said it was looking into the reports. Israel denies intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure.Three years of fertility treatment was a psychological roller coaster for Seba Jaafarawi. The retrieval of eggs from her ovaries was painful, the hormone injections had strong side-effects and the sadness when two attempted pregnancies failed seemed unbearable.Jaafarawi, 32, and her husband could not get pregnant naturally and turned to in vitro fertilization (IVF), which is widely available in Gaza.Large families are common in the enclave, where nearly half the population is under 18 and the fertility rate is high at 3.38 births per woman, according to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics. Britain's fertility rate is 1.63 births per woman.Despite Gaza's poverty, couples facing infertility pursue IVF, some selling TVs and jewellery to pay the fees, Al Ghalayini said.At least nine clinics in Gaza performed IVF, where eggs are collected from a woman's ovaries and fertilised by sperm in a lab. The fertilised eggs, called embryos, are often frozen until the optimal time for transfer to a woman's uterus. Most frozen embryos in Gaza were stored at the Al Basma centre.In September, Jaafarawi became pregnant, her first successful IVF attempt."I did not even have time to celebrate the news," she said.Jaafarawi worried: "How would I complete my pregnancy? What would happen to me and what would happen to the ones inside my womb?"Her ultrasound never happened and Ghalayini closed his clinic, where an additional five of Jaafarawi's embryos were stored.As the Israeli attacks intensified, Mohamed Ajjour, Al Basma's chief embryologist, started to worry about liquid nitrogen levels in the five specimen tanks. Top ups were needed every month or so to keep the temperature below -180C in each tank, which operate independent of electricity.After the war began, Ajjour managed to procure one delivery of liquid nitrogen, but Israel cut electricity and fuel to Gaza, and most suppliers closed.At the end of October, Israeli tanks rolled into Gaza and soldiers closed in on the streets around the IVF centre. It became too dangerous for Ajjour to check the tanks.Jaafarawi knew she should rest to keep her fragile pregnancy safe, but hazards were everywhere: she climbed six flights of stairs to her apartment because the elevator stopped working; a bomb levelled the building next door and blasted out windows in her flat; food and water became scarce.Instead of resting, she worried."I got very scared and there were signs that I would lose (the pregnancy)," she said.Jaafarawi bled a little bit after she and her husband left home and moved south to Khan Younis. The bleeding subsided, but her fear did not.They crossed into Egypt on November 12 and in Cairo, her first ultrasound showed she was pregnant with twins and they were alive.But after a few days, she experienced painful cramps, bleeding and a sudden shift in her belly. She made it to hospital, but the miscarriage had already begun."The sounds of me screaming and crying at the hospital are still (echoing) in my ears," she said.The pain of loss has not stopped."Whatever you imagine or I tell you about how hard the IVF journey is, only those who have gone through it know what it's really like," she said.Jaafarawi wanted to return to the war zone, retrieve her frozen embryos and attempt IVF again.But it was soon too late.Ghalayini said a single Israeli shell struck the corner of the centre, blowing up the ground floor embryology lab. He does not know if the attack specifically targeted the lab or not."All these lives were killed or taken away: 5,000 lives in one shell," he said.In April, the embryology lab was still strewn with broken masonry, blown-up lab supplies and, amid the rubble, the liquid nitrogen tanks, according to a Reuters-commissioned journalist who visited the site.The lids were open and, still visible at the bottom of one of the tanks, a basket was filled with tiny colour-coded straws containing the ruined microscopic embryos.