Anas Baba
Appearances
Apple News Today
What Trump’s early actions mean for public health
I only want to walk to my house, to Gaza City. Just the happiness inside you is driving you all the way. It's just like after all of that patience, after all of that missing for Gaza City, now we've been reunited again.
Consider This from NPR
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story of trying to survive in Gaza
Never now he's in al-Buraj camp, center Gaza, at his grandmother's house, and has finally reunited with his mother and his family. He's suffering. He wears a knee brace and drags his right leg, unable to control it after nerve damage. He cannot stand for long periods, but he's alive. And that's a miracle by itself.
Consider This from NPR
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story of trying to survive in Gaza
So despite his injuries, Nimr endured the horrors of being trapped in a field hospital in Rafah. At that time, there was an ongoing Israeli military operation, and that poor child, he witnessed an airstrike at the gate of the hospital itself. And he spent a month under the immense danger. And afterwards, Nimr and Zakaria, his uncle, finally managed to leave the field hospital, okay?
Consider This from NPR
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story of trying to survive in Gaza
And they began the journey of displacement, which took them 12 times from a place to another. They moved to a house where an Israeli hostages extract mission took place, killing 250 persons just to extract three Israeli hostages. And afterward, they moved to a tent. And finally, they returned to Gaza City and settled at their own grandmother's house.
Consider This from NPR
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story of trying to survive in Gaza
Yes, once he evacuated from Rafah. They rented a house in a North Iraq camp, okay, next to the extraction operation mission for the Israelis to extract three Israeli hostages.
Consider This from NPR
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story of trying to survive in Gaza
He managed to survive that with his uncle, yes.
Consider This from NPR
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story of trying to survive in Gaza
For such a child, okay, returning to Gaza is a miracle. He needs someone to carry him all the way because there was no roads for cars at that time. Every single person who wants to return to Gaza City...
Consider This from NPR
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story of trying to survive in Gaza
means that you need to walk at least for eight miles so a healthy grown-up man okay will feel tired okay just imagine a child that he's after one year of being shot from the israelis is going to take that journey he told me that he like asked his own uncle to carry him all the way and he was carried on his ankles like on his ankle back or all the way to find out that his own like mother father and the siblings are waiting for him at the other end
Consider This from NPR
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story of trying to survive in Gaza
Yes. Unfortunately, Rob, this war, despite all of the killing, 46,000 people who got killed, it's also affected the social fabric of Gaza. The unemployment and at the same time the war, the displacement, living in tents, made the parenthood a little bit hard, especially that you say as a parent, just like imagining the suffer that Nimr went through. So, you know, after 16 months,
Consider This from NPR
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story of trying to survive in Gaza
There was one problem that after three months of Nimr being pushed away to the south, we talked to him and other media outlets took to him. And after three months, his own family house got bombed by the Israelis. And the family blamed Nimr and his mama because Nimr took to the news.
Consider This from NPR
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story of trying to survive in Gaza
Yes, that's correct. We didn't have any, like, let's say we didn't have any confirmation that that was the purpose of the target. But at that time, even the families themselves turned around on each other because everyone wants to live raw. Me, myself, I was a journalist.
Consider This from NPR
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story of trying to survive in Gaza
160 journalists got killed in this war, and I was prevented from renting a house or even parking in front of any other family house because they were seeing me as a moving missile that the Israelis are going to kill him. So every single person in Gaza was always being aware about his own life.
Consider This from NPR
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story of trying to survive in Gaza
Yes, that's totally correct. And even talking to the media outlets here in Gaza started to be spreading between people here that, no, I don't want to be photographed. I don't want to be like saying any word outside to the media because I may just like put myself in danger.
Consider This from NPR
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story of trying to survive in Gaza
Unfortunately, yes. We do have four capabilities. Three of them are women, and one of them is Nimer's grandfather himself.
Consider This from NPR
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story of trying to survive in Gaza
The children like Nimr and Nimr himself are going to face the future that's totally dark. We can say that they witnessed multiple shades of war, which is the hunger and at the same time displacement and the killing for most of the population here. We're talking about the new generation that's going to come here that also wants to revenge and not believing in peace as they should be.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-30-2025 3PM EDT
Inside the patient's friend's hospital, the cries of hungry children echo through the corridors. It's the only hospital in northern Gaza still treating severe malnutrition, and it's running out of supplies. Mothers arrive carrying babies with sunken cheeks and frail bodies. Some infants weigh half of what they should.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-30-2025 3PM EDT
Half of Gaza's residents now rely entirely on local charity kitchens for a single daily meal. But many have closed and the remaining say they have just days before food runs out. Israel has blocked all aid into Gaza for the past two months. Israel says Hamas steals it, but the UN says it keeps control and warns that the risk of famine is imminent. Anas Baba, NPR News, Gaza.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-30-2025 4PM EDT
Palestinians in Gaza City headed to perform Da'id prayers under the sound of drones. Suddenly, an Israeli helicopter opened fire. Many Palestinians prayed among the rubble in Gaza City as most mosques in Gaza have been destroyed by Israeli strikes. For more than a month, Israel has blocked all aid, including food, to pressure Hamas to release more hostages.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-30-2025 4PM EDT
And many Palestinians here spent Eid standing in lines waiting for bread. Majda Abu Amra says the hardest part of Eid this year is losing many of her loved ones in the war. This is an Eid of hurt, troubles, pain and disaster. Israel returned to war almost two weeks ago, killing more than 800 Palestinians. Anas Baba, NPR News, Gaza City.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-13-2025 2PM EDT
For the past year and a half, dozens of Christian families in Gaza City have sought shelter inside the church of St. Perforius, one of the oldest churches in the world, as Israeli airstrikes destroyed much of the Gaza Strip. Many here are still mourning their loved ones, including 18 members of one family who were killed when an Israeli missile hit the church courtyard six months ago.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-13-2025 2PM EDT
The community has remained in the compound, surviving under a blockade with limited food like the rest of Gaza. Despite this, they are holding on to tradition. At the morning church service, children wove palm fronts into crosses and lit candles. One worshipper, Ghada Abu Dawood, said she had a message. Telling the world that we need peace. Anas Baba and Pure News, Gaza.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-19-2025 7PM EST
NPR producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, saw people in cars and many on foot celebrating their return to the southern city of Rafah for the first time in eight months. Mohammed Abu Mohsen was among those running to enter Rafah, the keys of his house in hand, though it was unclear if his home was still standing. Rafah.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-19-2025 7PM EST
like other areas of Gaza, has been mostly leveled by Israeli airstrikes and controlled demolitions. There are bodies and unexploded ordnance buried in the rubble, local officials say, making recovery and rebuilding a difficult task. Israel and Hamas agreed to an initial six-week ceasefire to allow for hostages and detainees to be released.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-19-2025 7PM EST
The deal also calls for a surge in needed humanitarian aid into Gaza. Aya Batraoui, NPR News Dubai, with reporting by Anas Baba in Gaza.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 05-05-2025 1AM EDT
In Gaza City, chaos erupts as hundreds of Palestinians break into this UN warehouse. In recent days, crowds have broken into several aid facilities throughout Gaza. Furniture, solar panels and other equipment, anything that can be repurposed or sold are howled away. There is no food for the looters to steal. These warehouses have run out of food stocks due to the Israeli blockade.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 05-05-2025 1AM EDT
Gaza's Interior Ministry told a local news agency that it has formed a new 5,000-member police force to deal with looting and armed gangs. Local police, however, say Israeli drones firing at police officers prevent them from effectively patrolling. With Israel allowing no food entry for over two months, this looting comes amid widespread hunger and lawlessness. Anas Baba, NPR News, Gaza City.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-14-2025 2PM EDT
On The Sunday Story, what it's like to be a reporter covering the war in Gaza while also living through it. Listen now to The Sunday Story on the Up First podcast from NPR.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
Once I return from any documenting an airstrike, I feel that I'm still doing nothing. The burned blood and flesh after an airstrike. I do wish that no one, truly no one, can smell it in his life.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
I do suffer from insomnia. I'm not going to lie about that. I cannot sleep that much.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
It's the cycle and the loop never ends. That just keeps going and going and going, but that takes you more and more and more and more to the same spot. Always numb, always anxious, always on your toes.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
And I started to take out most of the sands and even small deprees of sand and cement out of her own throat. Once I just like make sure that it's opened, I started to give her a CPR. And she took the first exhale and inhale and opened her eyes.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
It was a march and a celebration. People were waving Palestinian flags, singing, chanting, playing drums.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
I'm feeling that there is like shiver all over my body, electricity that's just like gives me more energy to keep going, to keep walking. I'm grateful. I'm feeling that with every step that I'm just like putting here, It's me back.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
I do have a lemon tree. I do have a palm tree. I do have an olive tree. And they got bigger, to be honest.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
I started to shout, is anybody here? Is there anyone inside the house? To be honest, I wanted my mother or my sister or maybe my brothers to answer me and to say, yeah, we are here, we're waiting for you. But no one answered me. And when I entered my own parent room, I... felt a little bit brokenhearted that I didn't find my father and my mother just to scream at me to go out.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
Just thinking after 16 months of war, we didn't have anything in our lives that we can control except our own dreams and our own fantasies.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
I laid on every single person of my family bed for around one minute. Even if it was dusty and super dusty, but it was just like I'm embracing them.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
I only call them once a month for 10 minutes.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
Yes, because I don't want them to be attached to me. Because maybe at one day, at any moment, I'm going to be killed. because I told them since the start of this war that I want to stay here and I want to keep doing what am I doing.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
I started to buy some plastic wraps, and even I was planning to have some bricks in order to build again the most damaged areas of my house.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
We can live with the dust. We can live with the debris. But we learned by the hard way that always be fast. We don't have that much time in our lives.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
I started to feel that Mr. President Donald Trump is just giving me and the other people of Gaza the chance to say goodbye for one last time for our houses before he takes it from us. It's just like the farewell.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
I reached a point four days ago that I burned one of my house doors. Yes, I took it off. So yesterday, I took some of the wood, I started the fire, and I started to think, what am I going to eat today? Thank God, I grabbed some tomatoes with me, five eggs, a chili pepper, and some olive oil, and I made a shakshuka. Yes, it's an Arabian-Palestinian dish that we truly love.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
So I made a shakshouka, which was the first time, to be honest, in 15 months to eat it. And I was super, super, super happy with that, with the result.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
And he told me that I smelled that you made a fire.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
I told him, yes, I do have it. Do you want it? And he told me, yes, I want it. I give it to him. And he told me that he wants it for his own daughter, that she got birth two weeks ago and he needs to keep the room as warm as possible. I told him, yes, for sure. And if you need any woods, I'm going to get it. I can take off another door for you.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
I was always fantasizing how it was going to be the first moment that I'm going to see my old neighborhood again.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
The mosque of my neighborhood, it was totally flat into the ground.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
It was flat into the ground. I kept walking and trying to tell myself that my house is okay. I do believe that my house is going to be okay.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
The doors were exploded. I found shatters of the locus itself. So the dream of unlocking my door was taken. So I just kept the keys inside my pocket and I entered the house. Once I entered, I started to feel the beating of my heart going crazy.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
No cooking gas, no blades, and no mugs, no spoons, nothing. My house was super sad. There was no people here in order to spread life. I tried my best to stay strong. But having that rush of emotions was good for me. It really was good for me. Because I thought that I lost that sensation.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
I'm on the on, on, on, on, on, go, go, go, go, go mood. Yes. I cannot even stop for a second. If I stop, that means that I'm going to find that ghost inside of me.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
Dust everywhere. The powder of the guns and the explosions all over the air. Wherever you put your eye to the horizon, it's the same. Destruction everywhere.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
I'm standing at the moment inside of Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis City.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
I'm now standing in the middle of the rubble of what was before a peaceful neighborhood in Rafah City.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
There is nothing like being disconnected. It's a feeling that you don't know anything. You are not able to understand what happens around you.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
I just put myself in danger in order just to get some internet near to the borders. I can't stay there much more.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
The problem, it was at least 90 airstrikes every day. So what am I going to cover? Am I going to cover like the airstrike on the school, or the airstrike on the mosque, or the airstrike that's on the hospital, or the airstrike that killed 100 person, or it's going to be like the children that they were amputated?
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
An Israeli airstrike targeted the house in Rafah, the house that belongs to Shaheen's family, which is... An airstrike targeted a civilian house in Rafah city. The house holded the family, which is Abu Qamar family, and they were hosted by a family called Abu Hanoud family.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
It's too much. I wish that I do have a hundred clone of me that can be everywhere. To just document every single thing. But it was impossible.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
And today, we are returning. Hundreds of thousands of people, literally hundreds of thousands of people.
Up First from NPR
A Palestinian Reporter Returns Home to Gaza City
Nothing is still the same. I'm going to keep reporting here.
Up First from NPR
Mideast Ceasefire, Florida Immigration Session, Congolese City Captured
I only want to walk to my house, to Gaza City. Just the happiness inside you is driving you all the way. I'm feeling truly, Aya, that every single step that I'm taking is truly taking me to the heaven, not to Gaza. It's just like after all of that patience, After all of that missing for Galveston City, now we've been greenlighting the game.
Up First from NPR
Biden Cancer Diagnosis, Escalation In Gaza, Kentucky Storm Recovery
Some of them, they cannot even walk. You can see the children in front of me at the meantime. They are carrying pots and empty cans and roaming the streets.
Up First from NPR
Biden Cancer Diagnosis, Escalation In Gaza, Kentucky Storm Recovery
Yeah, so on Friday evening, just about all of Kentucky was bracing for this line of severe thunderstorms that were heading west to east. And we were all told to expect high winds, hail, maybe even tornadoes. Well, just about midnight, the National Weather Service now estimates there was a tornado with roughly 150 mile per hour winds that just tore through central Kentucky.
Up First from NPR
Biden Cancer Diagnosis, Escalation In Gaza, Kentucky Storm Recovery
Yeah, so while Main Street looks pretty normal, just about a five-minute drive away, there's houses that are just turned over. That's where I found Matthew Belcher, and he was still in shock yesterday. After the tornado, he said he emerged to find that his house was mostly fine, but right across the street at this mobile home park, other homes had just disappeared into the wind.
Up First from NPR
Biden Cancer Diagnosis, Escalation In Gaza, Kentucky Storm Recovery
And yesterday, some RVs were still wrapped around tree trunks.
Up First from NPR
Biden Cancer Diagnosis, Escalation In Gaza, Kentucky Storm Recovery
And Belcher says his neighborhood was told they may not have running water or power again for weeks. Because you could see all the light poles are just leaning or snapped in two. And meanwhile, everyone with damages have been scrambling to patch holes in their houses or get keepsakes removed.
Up First from NPR
Biden Cancer Diagnosis, Escalation In Gaza, Kentucky Storm Recovery
Because the weather experts are telling us that another round of thunderstorms is coming tonight and Tuesday.
Up First from NPR
Biden Cancer Diagnosis, Escalation In Gaza, Kentucky Storm Recovery
So our Kentucky Public Radio team found that on quiet nights, the local office was closing from about 1 to 7 a.m. to conserve staff. But then on nights with bad weather, they are able to shift things around to make sure they are fully staffed. And so the office's lead meteorologist says they were fully staffed and they were prepared on Friday night.
Up First from NPR
Biden Cancer Diagnosis, Escalation In Gaza, Kentucky Storm Recovery
They said that they knew a tornado was possible and that the failure to notify people just isn't an option for them.
Up First from NPR
Biden Cancer Diagnosis, Escalation In Gaza, Kentucky Storm Recovery
Yeah, so I spoke to this guy named Jake Cutchins. He was there helping his girlfriend's family, the Carnes family, and they were all digging through what was left of the house after the tornado just blew the entire second story and the roof off. And so we sort of sat on the rubble of that second story with our feet dangling off the edge.
Up First from NPR
Biden Cancer Diagnosis, Escalation In Gaza, Kentucky Storm Recovery
And we sort of watched this beautiful purple sunset over this totally decimated neighborhood. And sitting there, Cutchins just started unreeling his thoughts.
Up First from NPR
Biden Cancer Diagnosis, Escalation In Gaza, Kentucky Storm Recovery
So I think it's just little moments like that that really help put things in perspective after such a big tragedy.