UGCA blogger who attracted a following on Instagram and TikTok by documenting each day life in Gaza has been killed in a strike.
Mohammad ‘Medo’ Halimy, 20, was hit by shrapnel from a close-by blast brought on by an Israeli missile in Khan Younis on Monday, in response to two youth organisations he had beforehand labored with.
The Tamer Institute for Neighborhood Training instructed the BBC that Halimy was in an space close to the seaside the place displaced folks have sheltered when he was fatally struck.
The IDF instructed the BBC it couldn’t verify a strike came about in Khan Younis on Monday, however mentioned it was persevering with to “counter threats whereas persisting to mitigate hurt to civilians” in Gaza.
Halimy constructed up a social media viewers after his household have been compelled to flee their dwelling when Israel started its navy operation in Gaza within the wake of the 7 October assaults.
Greater than 250,000 folks adopted him on Instagram and TikTok after he started posting movies detailing his life as certainly one of Gaza’s displaced residents in Rafah and Khan Younis.
Halimy’s movies ranged from easy cooking recipes he had created with restricted provides and home equipment, to walkthrough movies of how he made his content material. In an interview final yr, he mentioned each clip he posted to social media value him about $3 – a big sum in Gaza.
He posted his remaining video on Monday, hours earlier than he was killed, through which he confirmed the tent he was residing in and detailed what he had completed that day.
Each Palestinian organisations which confirmed his demise to the BBC mentioned the deadly strike occurred in a close-by avenue and Halimy was injured by flying particles. He died the next day.
Spark, a Gaza-based charity with which Halimy had labored in the summertime of 2023, confirmed his demise to the BBC and praised his “potential so as to add magnificence and splendour to a spot wherever it’s” in a publish on-line.
“Muhammad, your form spirit will stay with us, and we imagine you deserve a greater world,” it added.
“Might God have mercy on you, my beloved,” his sister Rahaf wrote in a publish on Instagram asserting his demise. “Might God settle for you as a martyr.”
EPAEarlier this yr, Halimy instructed NBC Information he hoped his content material would assist “to indicate the world what our life actually seems like”.
“I’m displaying that us Palestinians are very resilient,” he instructed the US broadcaster.
“We will survive and dwell it doesn’t matter what occurs, in no matter circumstances. We will not be defeated. We’re very robust folks, and we’ll dwell it doesn’t matter what.”
Israel launched a navy marketing campaign in Gaza in response to an unprecedented assault on southern Israel on 7 October by Hamas, throughout which about 1,200 folks have been killed and 251 taken hostage.
Greater than 40,530 folks have been killed in Gaza since then, in response to the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry, which doesn’t distinguish civilian and combatant deaths. The UN human rights workplace says most of these killed have been girls and youngsters.
US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators try to dealer a ceasefire deal that might see Hamas launch the 104 hostages nonetheless being held, together with 34 who’re presumed useless, in change for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Oblique talks have continued in Cairo in latest days, however thus far there was no signal of a breakthrough over key sticking factors. They embody Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand that Israel hold troops alongside Gaza’s border with Egypt, which Hamas and Egypt have rejected.
