SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
It's been five months since President Trump declared a ceasefire in Gaza, but the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran now occupies the Trump administration's attention. NPR's Aya Batrawy in Dubai and Anas Baba in Gaza report on how the war in Iran has left the Palestinian territory more besieged, with recent gains now reversed.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Praying in non-English language).
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Bombed-out mosques in Gaza City are packed with worshippers standing amid mounds of rubble, praying in these final nights of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The mood is uneasy. A key border crossing with Egypt had finally opened last month, allowing some people to return to Gaza and some wounded to leave. The opening of Rafah crossing was a sign of progress in Trump's ceasefire plan. But after Israel and the U.S. launched war on Iran, Israel closed all of Gaza's borders. Under U.S. pressure, it reopened one crossing for the limited entry of food and fuel to keep hospitals running. Rakan al-Horani, a 26-year-old resident of Gaza, says they're feeling the knock-on effects of the war in Iran.
RAKAN AL-HORANI: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: He says, "it's not a ceasefire if the Rafah crossing is closed." He says, "people should be able to go and come, to be free from this prison we're in."
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
BATRAWY: Israeli forces still occupy more than half of Gaza. Artillery and gunfire is heard day and night. Israel says it continues to target Hamas, but hundreds of civilians have also been killed in the ceasefire. NPR's reporter in Gaza, Anas Baba, says people are feeling squeezed.
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: Prices are high, money is tight, and safety remains fragile. The sky is never quiet. Drones hum constantly, helicopters patrol, and since the Iran-USA war began, we have seen Iranian missiles pass through our atmosphere towards Tel Aviv.
BATRAWY: But it was just three weeks ago that President Trump presided over the first meeting of his newly formed Board of Peace. Several billion dollars in pledges were made toward Gaza's reconstruction, and five countries said they would join an international stabilization force in Gaza. Today, the world's focus is on the Iran war and its spillover across the region. Negotiations on the crucial next steps of Gaza's ceasefire plan, like Hamas disarming and Israel withdrawing, are suspended.
GERSHON BASKIN: Now everything's frozen and Gaza's a disaster, and no one's paying attention to it.
BATRAWY: That's Gershon Baskin, a veteran Israeli hostage negotiator and peace activist. He says the Gaza Executive Board - that's supposed to report to Trump's Board of Peace and includes the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff - have not held a single meeting yet. The two men were in charge of nuclear talks with Iran just before the war. Baskin says he wrote a letter to Witkoff this week expressing his concern about what could happen if progress stalls in Gaza.
BASKIN: The Israelis will say Hamas has based itself. Hamas has rearmed. Hamas is stronger now. We need a green light from Washington to finish off Hamas. And this is my biggest fear - that because nothing is happening in Gaza and there's a vacuum of power, that the Americans will give a green light to Israel to finish off Hamas, to restart the war.
BATRAWY: Influential members of Israel's far-right governing coalition have spoken out against Trump's peace plan and want to finish off Hamas militarily. For now, Israel's military says approximately 200 trucks are entering Gaza daily through one crossing. That's a fraction of what the U.N. says is needed.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAR HORN)
BATRAWY: In Gaza, 23-year-old Mohammed al-Baghdadi says the ceasefire, if it can be called that, has just put life on hold without any real breakthrough.
MOHAMMED AL-BAGHDADI: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: And he says that while the situation is better than before, the ceasefire simply put Gaza on a back burner. Aya Batrawy, NPR News, Dubai, with Anas Baba in Gaza City. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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