War in Gaza: Palestinian TikTok star killed in Israeli airstrike

They snapped a selfie, “Finally Reunited”, Halimy captioned it on Instagram, and started catching up

It was another day of war in Gaza, another day of what 19-year-old Palestinian TikTok star Medo Halimy called his “Tent Life”. As he often did in videos documenting life’s mundane absurdities in the enclave, Halimy on Monday walked to his local internet café—rather, a tent with Wi-Fi where displaced Palestinians can connect to the outside world—to meet his friend and collaborator Talal Murad.

They snapped a selfie, “Finally Reunited”, Halimy captioned it on Instagram, and started catching up. Then came a flash of light, 18-year-old Murad said, an explosion of white heat and sprayed earth. Murad felt pain in his neck. Halimy was bleeding from his head. A car on the coastal road in front of them was engulfed in flames, the apparent target of an Israeli airstrike. It took ten minutes for an ambulance to arrive. Some hours later doctors pronounced Halimy dead.

“He represented a message,” Murad said, still recovering from his shrapnel wounds and reeling from the Israeli airstrike that killed his friend. “He represented hope and strength.” The Israeli military didn’t respond to a request for comment on the strike. His death has catalysed an outpouring of grief on social media, where his followers expressed shock and sadness.

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