Hundreds of online tributes have been left for a content creator known for sharing videos on social media about his life in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s war with Hamas.
Medo Halimy, 19, died after he was hit by shrapnel during an Israeli airstrike on Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis on Monday, several of his friends told NBC News.
Halimy's collaborator Talal Murad, 18, said in an Instagram message Thursday that he was catching up with his friend when he saw “a flash coming from above my head and followed by an explosion.”
“We did everything together, we laughed, we cried, we walked for hours continuously, we ran a business together, but sadly we didn’t die together,” he said.
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“He was the one who passed and I was the one who (will) miss him,” added Murad, who said he was also injured in the neck and back by the strike.
Halimy was filmed by an NBC News crew as he rushed to the intensive care unit in Khan Younis’ Nasser hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries shortly afterward.
He was among a handful of high-profile creators who use social media to document their daily lives and provide unique perspectives on life in the war zone. Viewers praised him for finding small moments of joy amid the destruction around him. At the time of his death, he had amassed over 182,000 followers on TikTok and 75,000 on Instagram.
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In a June interview with NBC News, he said he was “showing that us Palestinians are very resilient.”
“We’re going to survive and live no matter what happens, in whatever circumstances. We can’t be defeated. We’re very strong people, and we’re going to live no matter what,” he said.
In addition to his daily vlogs, Halimy had recently started a gardening series in which he asked his followers for tips on how to grow certain plants like mint, melons and lima beans.
He had also created an account with Murad called Gazan Experience, in which they answered questions about how Palestinians lived under the current conditions.
“He taught me to live my life to its fullest, to be strong and happy no matter what life throws at you, 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,” Murad said.
Other friends and followers also took to social media to pay tribute to the creator.
Omar Shareed and Mohammed Herzallah, who together run “The Omar Herz Show,” a popular Instagram account that shows snippets of life from Gaza, wrote that Halimy was a “special person for Omar and he considered him a brother.”
While many of Halimy’s followers offered their condolences in the comment sections of his videos, some also said they were saddened by the fact that Halimy had teased a “secret project” that he was working on in his final video posted before his death.
Local health officials say more than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza in Israel’s monthslong offensive, which it launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks, when 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Halimy was an alumnus of the State Department’s Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program, which gives high school students from countries with “significant Muslim populations” the opportunity to live and study in the United States for an academic year.
He attended Harker Heights High School in the Texan city of the same name as part of the program in 2021 and 2022.
Paying tribute to Halimy in an Instagram post, the alumni association for former YES students from Gaza called him “passionate” and a person who “made everyone’s day.”
“Medo was creating vlogs of his daily life as a refugee in Almawasi, where he showed people how it is to live in a tent and how surviving a genocide isn’t an easy feat but he was doing it either way,” it said. “It wasn’t an easy feat at all.”
Representatives from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Xavier Vergin, who attended Harker Heights High School with Halimy, said that he was “warm” and always had “positive energy.”
“During his time here as an exchange student he always had a smile on his face and got to experience a variety of different things that we in Texas could provide,” he said, adding that his “heart sank” when he “heard the news from his family that he had passed away.”
“I wish I could call him at least one more time to tell him how much I wanted him to be here,” he said.
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