After 15 months of displacement, a Palestinian reporter finally returns home

Enlarge this image Anas Baba films a video of himself in Gaza. Anas Baba/NPR hide caption toggle caption Anas Baba/NPR Anas Baba films a video of himself in Gaza. Anas Baba/NPR Anas Baba is NPR’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. He’s also one of the only Palestinian journalists working full time for an American news organization in Gaza. Israel has banned international journalists from independent access to the territory throughout this war. But Baba is from Gaza City, and he chose to stay and report when the war began. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas gunmen stormed into Israel, killing nearly 1200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Israel’s military responded immediately. Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 48,000 people have been killed by Israeli fire — more than half women and children. The territory has been decimated by Israeli airstrikes. More than 90% of all homes are now damaged or destroyed in Gaza. People are living in makeshift tents atop the rubble of their homes or sheltering in classrooms and school courtyards, without running water or electricity. Enlarge this image A young boy surveys the damage to his neighborhood in Gaza after a deadly Israeli airstrike on Nov. 17, 2024. Anas Baba/NPR hide caption toggle caption Anas Baba/NPR A young boy surveys the damage to his neighborhood in Gaza after a deadly Israeli airstrike on Nov. 17, 2024. Anas Baba/NPR Enlarge this image A young man takes a selfie amid the destruction in Gaza. Anas Baba/NPR hide caption toggle caption Anas Baba/NPR A young man takes a selfie amid the destruction in Gaza. Anas Baba/NPR Enlarge this image A boy mourns relatives killed in Israeli airstrikes on central Gaza’s Nuseirat neighborhood that killed 21 people, the youngest a 40-day-old baby on Nov. 1, 2024. Anas Baba/NPR hide caption toggle caption Anas Baba/NPR A boy mourns relatives killed in Israeli airstrikes on central Gaza’s Nuseirat neighborhood that killed 21 people, the youngest a 40-day-old baby on Nov. 1, 2024. Anas Baba/NPR Baba has done essential reporting on the ground while also surviving a war in which Israel has killed a record number of journalists, as documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists. He has sent dispatches from hospitals, displacement camps and bomb sites with little more than a cell phone. His eyewitness accounts and the audio he gathers have been crucial for the team of NPR reporters covering the war from outside of Gaza — and for NPR listeners trying to understand the human toll of the war. Sponsor Message On January 19, 2025 a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect. About a week later, Palestinians who’d been displaced to the south were permitted to return to their homes in the north of Gaza. Baba was among them, returning home to Gaza City after 15 months of displacement. Enlarge this image Palestinians pile on a truck carrying water as they return for the first time in 10 months to the widely destroyed southern city of Rafah after a ceasefire comes into effect and Israeli forces withdraw from the area on Jan. 19. Anas Baba/NPR hide caption toggle caption Anas Baba/NPR Palestinians pile on a truck carrying water as they return for the first time in 10 months to the widely destroyed southern city of Rafah after a ceasefire comes into effect and Israeli forces withdraw from the area on Jan. 19. Anas Baba/NPR Enlarge this image Palestinians drive a truck to Gaza City on Jan. 25. Anas Baba/NPR hide caption toggle caption Anas Baba/NPR Palestinians drive a truck to Gaza City on Jan. 25. Anas Baba/NPR Enlarge this image The local mosque in Anas Baba’s neighborhood in Gaza City sustained heavy damage. Anas Baba/NPR hide caption toggle caption Anas Baba/NPR The local mosque in Anas Baba’s neighborhood in Gaza City sustained heavy damage. Anas Baba/NPR Enlarge this image Very few structures are left standing in Gaza City. Anas Baba/NPR hide caption toggle caption Anas Baba/NPR Very few structures are left standing in Gaza City. Anas Baba/NPR Listen to The Sunday Story from NPR’s Up First podcast in the NPR App, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was reported and produced by Justine Yan. Additional production by Adelina Lancianese. Editing by Jennifer Schmidt. Fact-checking by Will Chase and engineering by Jimmy Keeley. Digital support from Liana Simstrom. Our visual editor is Emily Bogle. We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at [email protected].