Editor
UGCA blogger who attracted a following on Instagram and TikTok by documenting day by 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 keeping with two youth organisations he had beforehand labored with.
The Tamer Institute for Community Education advised the BBC that Halimy was in an space close to the seaside the place displaced individuals have sheltered when he was fatally struck.
The IDF advised the BBC it couldn’t verify a strike occurred in Khan Younis on Monday, however stated 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 pressured to flee their house when Israel started its navy operation in Gaza within the wake of the 7 October assaults.
More than 250,000 individuals adopted him on Instagram and TikTok after he started posting movies detailing his life as considered 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 12 months, he stated 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, by which he confirmed the tent he was dwelling in and detailed what he had carried out that day.
Both Palestinian organisations which confirmed his loss of life to the BBC stated the deadly strike occurred in a close-by road 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 loss of life to the BBC and praised his “means so as to add magnificence and splendour to a spot wherever it’s” in a submit on-line.
“Muhammad, your variety spirit will stay with us, and we imagine you deserve a greater world,” it added.
“May God have mercy on you, my beloved,” his sister Rahaf wrote in a submit on Instagram saying his loss of life. “May God settle for you as a martyr.”
EPAEarlier this 12 months, Halimy advised NBC News he hoped his content material would assist “to indicate the world what our life actually seems to be like”.
“I’m displaying that us Palestinians are very resilient,” he advised the US broadcaster.
“We’re going to outlive and stay it doesn’t matter what occurs, in no matter circumstances. We cannot be defeated. We’re very robust individuals, and we’ll stay 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 individuals have been killed and 251 taken hostage.
More than 40,530 individuals have been killed in Gaza since then, in keeping with 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 kids.
US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are attempting to dealer a ceasefire deal that will see Hamas launch the 104 hostages nonetheless being held, together with 34 who’re presumed lifeless, in change for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Indirect talks have continued in Cairo in latest days, however to date there was no signal of a breakthrough over key sticking factors. They embrace Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand that Israel preserve troops alongside Gaza’s border with Egypt, which Hamas and Egypt have rejected.
