Mohammad "Medo" Halimy (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: ميدو حليمي‎; March 12, 2005 – August 26, 2024) was a Palestinian

social media personality A social media influencer, or simply influencer (also known as an online influencer), is a person who builds a grassroots online presence through engaging content such as photos, videos, and updates. This is done by using direct audience intera ...

and blogger based in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

. He was known for his “tent life” videos documenting his experiences living in a camp for displaced Palestinians during the

Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip The Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip is a major part of the Gaza war. Starting on 7 October 2023, immediately after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Hamas-led attack on Israel, Israel began bombing of the Gaza Strip, bombing the Ga ...

. He was killed on August 26, 2024, after he was hit by a shrapnel during an Israeli airstrike on Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis.

Early life and education

Halimy was born and raised in

Gaza City Gaza City, also called Gaza, is a city in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Gaza Governorate. Located on the Mediterranean coast, southwest of Jerusalem, it was home to Port of Gaza, Palestine's only port. With a population of ...

, Palestine. He was the son of Adi Al-Halimy. He had four brothers and a sister. Halimy was an alumnus United States

Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...

’s ''Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study'' (YES) program which allows students from predominantly Muslim countries to live and study in the United States for an academic year. He was a student at

Harker Heights High School Harker Heights High School is a public high school located in Harker Heights, Texas and classified as a 6A school by the University Interscholastic League. It is one of six high schools in Killeen Independent School District located in western B ...

Harker Heights, Texas Harker Heights is a city in Bell County, Texas, United States. As of the 2020 census, 33,097 people resided in the city, up from a population of 17,308 in 2000. This makes Harker Heights the third-largest city in Bell County, after Killeen and ...

from 2021 to 2022. In the summer of 2023, Halimy worked in the Gaza-Based ''Spark'' charity. Prior to October 7th 2023, Halimy was a student at Gaza's

Al-Azhar University The Al-Azhar University ( ; , , ) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic ...

, studying political science and economics. On October 7th, 2023, Halimy’s family was displaced from their home in Gaza City at beginning of the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

. Throughout the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, his family was displaced multiple times, moving between

Khan Younis Khan Yunis (), also spelled Khan Younis or Khan Yunus, is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and serves as the capital of the Khan Yunis Governorate. It has been largely destroyed during the Gaza war. Before the 14th century, Khan ...

and

Rafah Rafah ( ) is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Rafah Governorate. It is located south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. Due to the Gaza war, about 1.4 million people from Gaza C ...

. In late April 2024, they were sent back to Khan Younis following the invasion of Rafah. During this time, his grandmother has died due to medicine shortages from the ongoing

blockade of the Gaza Strip The restrictions on movement and goods in Gaza imposed by Israel date to the early 1990s. After Hamas took over in 2007, Israel significantly intensified existing movement restrictions and imposed a complete blockade on the movement of good ...

Online presence

Halimy launched his TikTok account after fleeing with his family to Muwasi, the southern coastal area of Gaza that Israel had designated a humanitarian safe zone. He gained a substantial following on Instagram and TikTok in the summer of 2024 through his vlogs that documented his daily life in Gaza in a camp for internally-displaced Palestinians. He showcased his “tent life” which included sharing moments of joy during deadly conditions and limited internet access, as well as, how he did chores, secured food and managed boredom. Halimy stated these vlogs were to show the resilience, strength, and survival of the Palestinian people. In addition to these daily vlogs, he also had a gardening series where he would plant seeds outside his tent to represent life. Along with his collaborator Talal Murad, they created a joint Instagram page called ''Gazan Experience'' where they would answer user questions about how Gazans were living under the current conditions. Halimy was widely praised by viewers for finding small moments of joy amid the destruction around him.

Death

On August 26, 2024, Halimy was hit by a shrapnel during an Israeli airstrike on Gaza's southern city of

. The fatal strike happened in a nearby street to Halimy and his collaborator Murad who were both hit by the deadly debris of the strike. Murad describes a flaming car in front of them and seeing Halimy bleeding from his head. It took 10 minutes for a car to arrive. He was filmed by an

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

crew as he was rushed to the intensive care unit of Khan Younis’

Nasser Hospital The Nasser Hospital (or Nasser Medical Complex) is one of the largest hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. During the Gaza war, Nasser was one of the final active hospitals in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, and was one of the last f ...

however, hours later, he succumbed to his injuries and died. His death catalyzed an outpouring of grief on social media, where followers expressed shock and sadness at his death due to the close personal connections they had formed with him due to his videos.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halimy, Medo 2024 deaths 21st-century Palestinian artists 21st-century Palestinian male artists 21st-century Palestinian journalists Alumni of Al-Azhar University – Gaza Instagram people Civilians killed in the Israel–Hamas war Deaths by Israeli airstrikes during the Israel–Hamas war Journalists from the Gaza Strip Journalists killed by Israeli security forces Murdered Palestinian journalists Palestinian Internet celebrities People from Gaza City Palestinian people of the Israel–Hamas war Year of birth uncertain 2005 births