Four Seasons of Ceasefire in Gaza

Rund Abdelfatah (0:02)

Anas, I'm really curious, do you find any kind of joy in a song or a particular piece of music that you go back to even on the hardest days?

Anas Baba (0:18)

If you ask me this question before the war, I would go for Tupac.

SPEAKER_3 (0:24)

I would go for Mozart.

Rund Abdelfatah (0:29)

Tupac and Mozart, those are different vibes.

SPEAKER_4 (0:31)

I know, I know, I know.

Anas Baba (0:40)

Maybe also I'm gonna go for Adele.

But during the war, to be honest, I would rather not to listen to music because they're gonna drain the battery. Everything you need to be calculated, even when you want to take a bath, it's something literally like a scientific project. So I can't, truly I can't.

Rund Abdelfatah (1:14)

So the only Tupac playing is like in your head.

Anas Baba (1:17)

Exactly. Most of the time, everything I play in my head. To be honest, the most song that still plays in my head is, I'm not a man who loves like musical movies or musical film, but I watched a musical film when I was like in my 20s, Lumuzgabla, Lumuzgabla.

There was a song that still literally plays, like shuffle in my head. I never stop.

SPEAKER_6 (1:45)

Look down, look down, don't look them in the eye.

Anas Baba (1:55)

Now, prisoners 24610, your time is up and your parallel be gone. You know what that means.

SPEAKER_6 (2:04)

It's time to die. Look down, look down.

So this is the song.

Anas Baba (2:12)

It's not about the Israelis, actually. I didn't look to the eye of the people of Gaza, because I feel the pain of them. And I feel always that we're all going to die.

This is the reality. This is the only belief that I have in the meantime, that we're all going to die.

Rund Abdelfatah (2:32)

This is Anas Baba. You might recognize him. His voice, his interviews, his photos have informed NPR's audience for years.

SPEAKER_8 (2:40)

NPR's Anas Baba. NPR's Anas Baba.

SPEAKER_5 (2:43)

Anas Baba and NPR News, Gaza.

Rund Abdelfatah (2:46)

Anas is one of the last remaining journalists in Gaza, working full-time with an American news organization. For the last three years, Israel has barred foreign journalists from independently entering Gaza, and more Palestinian journalists have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza than any war on record ever, says the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Anas Baba (3:08)

During the war, your senses, your emotions, are all literally about surviving because you know that death is everywhere. But now, which is ceasefire, as they describe it, you need to feel the opposite, but it's not.

Rund Abdelfatah (3:29)

October 10th, 2025

SPEAKER_4 (3:32)

The war in Gaza is over.

Rund Abdelfatah (3:35)

A US-backed ceasefire went into effect.

It outlined a plan whereby Hamas would release the remaining 48 Israeli hostages captured in the October 7th attacks. Israel would release thousands of Palestinian prisoners, and major military operations would end.

SPEAKER_9 (3:52)

The president last night called this the first step toward a strong, durable, and ever-lasting peace.

SPEAKER_4 (3:59)

Peace in the Middle East.

Anas Baba (4:02)

The agreement had three phases. Phase one says that the Israelis are going to take half of Gaza, and the Palestinians are going to have half of Gaza.

And the second phase…

Rund Abdelfatah (4:14)

Israel would withdraw to around 40% of Gaza. Palestinians would control 60%.

Anas Baba (4:20)

And the third phase means disarmament of Hamas. At the same time…

Rund Abdelfatah (4:24)

Israel would withdraw to 15% of Gaza, until quote, Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.

Anas Baba (4:33)

And that's the end of the war.

Rund Abdelfatah (4:36)

Here's what the ceasefire has looked like in Gaza by the numbers, according to Gaza's health ministry. In the almost one year since the announcement of the ceasefire, a dozen journalists killed in Israeli attacks. More than 1,400 people killed in Israeli attacks, 300 of them children. Around 5,000 people wounded in Israeli attacks.

And those numbers rise nearly every day.

Anas Baba (5:02)

The remaining 2.1 million Palestinians there are being totally crowded and squeezed in only 30% of Gaza. 10% of this 30% are rebels.

Rund Abdelfatah (5:15)

Day in, day out, Anas has reported on every development, working closely with a team of colleagues at NPR, including fellow Middle East reporters Aya Batraoui and Daniel Estrin, to get those stories out to the world.

Anas Baba (5:29)

Until the moment, most of the families in Gaza, they don't talk about their loss, because they are still losing more and more.

Rund Abdelfatah (5:37)

So it's not past tense, it's still present.