Justine Yan
speaker
52 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard Mar 2025
Justine Yan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
I started calling Anas Baba after the ceasefire went into effect, and he was home in Gaza City. The only place he could find with a good internet connection was a cemetery next to a hospital that had generators. So that's where he'd sit to talk with me about what he'd been through during this war and how home had been an idea that sustained him for 15 months.
He said he wasn't sure what he'd find. But as he walked down the street, reality sunk in.
He walked past a community kitchen.
And another building that had housed 20 families.
And in a way, it was. Unlike so many other houses, his was still standing. Anas' house is at the end of a small street. It's four stories high, with concrete verandas on the top three floors. He said his father designed it to look like an Italian villa. Anas lived here with his mother and father, his sister and two of his younger brothers.
They all evacuated Gaza early in the war, and he hasn't seen them in almost a year. So when he walked up to the front door of his house, he was alone. He reached for the keys in his pocket, but there was nothing left to unlock.
All of the windows had been shattered by bombs. There were gaping holes in the walls. And on the third floor, he found an unexploded artillery shell. Ana surveyed the damage, the broken glass and piles of rubble. The kitchen was totally empty.
Anas is used to being in reporter mode.
This is Aya Batraoui, NPR's correspondent in Dubai. She's been working closely with Anas since the start of the war.
Aya has covered the Middle East for more than 15 years. After Hamas's attack on October 7th, her editors in Washington called her and asked her to fly to Israel to join the NPR team there. Ea got on a plane to Tel Aviv the next morning, and she got her assignment. From day one, I was told, call Gaza.
In the chaos of that first week, Anas and Ea collaborated on several stories. Anas would upload recordings and videos he'd gathered on the ground, and Ea would write the stories for the radio, including this one.
This was some of the last reporting Aya got from Anas in Gaza City before he had to evacuate.
Ayo went on the radio again and again, trying to describe what was happening.
Hi, thanks, Scott.
Anas documented every step of that journey.
Sending dispatches to his colleagues in Israel.
There were multiple communications blackouts during the war.
Just as Eya depended on Anas' reporting, Anas depended on Eya to help him see the bigger picture. So that meant, sometimes, Anas took big risks, like moving closer to the Israeli border to connect to their cell towers.
Eya and the rest of the team worried about Anas' safety. When there were bombings in an area Anas was thought to be in, Someone would reach out, just to ask. Are you okay? Is it near you? And Anas would respond as soon as he could. He was alive, and he had recordings for them. Most mornings, Anas told me, he woke up at 4 a.m. and began scrolling through updates.
What had happened while he was asleep.
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