Mohammed ‘Medo’ Halimy was born on 12 March 2005, and raised in Gaza City, Palestine. He was one of five siblings.
He spent a year as an exchange student at Harker Heights High School in Texas from 2021 to 2022, as part of the US Department of State’s Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study programme. After completing high school, he went on to study Political Science and Economics at al-Azhar University in Gaza. He worked in a Gaza-based youth enterprise charity called Spark during the summer of 2023.
Following the renewed armed violence on 7 October 2023, Medo and his family were displaced from their home. They moved multiple times between Gaza City, Khan Younis and Rafah, seeking safety.
Medo began creating TikTok and Instagram videos documenting his experiences living in a camp for displaced people. His ‘Tent Life’ videos gained over 250,000 followers and 2 million views. Among a variety of topics, he demonstrated recipes which could be created with the limited supplies available in the camp. He told NBC News in an interview that he wanted to the world to see what life was like in Gaza during the war, and to highlight the resilience of ordinary Palestinians. He also began a series on gardening, asking his followers for tips on growing plants such as mint, melons and lima beans.
Medo’s deadpan humour sometimes concealed the challenges of his daily life. He was keen to emphasise that his 50-second upbeat videos did not show the rest of a whole day of struggling.
On 25 August, Medo filmed a new episode of his ‘Tent Life’ series and walked to an internet point to upload the video. A friend who was with him at the time, Talal Murad, recalled them taking a selfie together, uploading it to Instagram, and then a sudden explosion of white light and heat. He saw Medo bleeding from the head, having been hit by shrapnel. Medo was rushed to Nasser hospital and taken into intensive care, but died the following day.
Talal commented that Medo had taught him:
‘to live life to the fullest, to be strong and happy no matter what life throws at you, and to be smart enough to have a solution for every problem. In the list of the people who made me laugh, Medo takes the top spot’.
Rahaf Halimy, Medo’s sister, said:
‘Everyone who knew Medo loved him. He left a beautiful impression on everyone… He was an ambitious person with dreams. He was hardworking. He led many youth teams. He had many friends from all over the world. Everyone is affected by Medo’s death.’