Palestinian TikTok gardener killed in suspected Israeli air strike

‘Planting, for me, is a form of resistance,’ Medo Halimy told followers who watched him tend plants in Gaza refugee camp

A Palestinian who gained hundreds of thousands of followers online by tending his small plants in a refugee camp has been killed in a suspected Israeli air strike.
Medo Halimy aimed to plant something daily in Gaza to “bring life to Earth,” he told the nearly 250,000 followers of his TikTok account, which he started when he was forced to live in a tent encampment after fleeing his home. The account gained millions of likes.
The 19-year-old documented his project online, calling it his “Tent Life”, in posts he transmitted to the outside world through a local internet cafe – a white tent where displaced Palestinians like him could get online for a while.
His videos, which totalled millions of views, showed the world what life is like for Gazans as war rages on – knowing each day that another attack would mean more deaths while eking out survival with the little money and few goods available.
“A lot of you ask me why I plant. Planting, for me, is a form of resistance,” he said in one video. “I bring life to Earth. They’re taking away life, but I’m bringing it to Earth and I hope that my plants have strong roots to the ground, just like we Palestinians do.”
This week, Mr Halimy had just taken a selfie with his friend, Talal Murad, 18, at the tent cafe they both frequented when an explosion hit the pair in what the latter believes was an Israeli air strike.
Mr Murad felt pain in his neck and Mr Halimy was bleeding from his head, according to an account given to the Associated Press. A nearby car was on fire. Within hours, doctors pronounced Mr Halimy dead.
“I really feel a vacuum inside of me, like I lost a big part of myself,” Mr Murad told the Canadian broadcaster CBC.
“The targeting wasn’t for Medo, it was for someone who was passing by. Medo and I and the rest of the injured people were side casualties. It had nothing to do with us.”
Tributes have poured in online for Mr Halimy, with one person posting: “I hope someone is taking care of his plants.”
In his videos, Mr Halimy was somehow simultaneously at ease and serious about the situation, showing the difficulties in going about the most basic of tasks – such as doing the laundry – in wartime.
“I got an empty bucket, I filled it up with water, and then I added soap – oh, I don’t have any!” he said in one clip. “So I went and bought some, it was like $2.
“I got my dirty clothes and I dipped them in the water. I added some of that soap and by some, I mean a lot, because it doesn’t even work – it’s just coloured water.”
In another post, made just a few days before his death, Mr Halimy mourned the death of his young cousin.
“What did he do? He was only 11,” he wrote. “He kissed his mum and told her loved her. Three minutes later, he was hit by an air strike. She didn’t know it was a goodbye kiss.”
Sometimes Mr Halimy used his videos to answer questions from followers, including how he “stays sane despite everything that’s going on – everybody just keeps asking me this question”.
The answer? A bit of tea, if he could get the supplies, and gazing over Gaza’s Mediterranean coastline at sunset with some tunes in the background as he recorded for followers.
“Medo was always a positive person who loved life,” Zaid Halimy, his brother, told CBC. “He liked to live day by day. He was happy during his days. So Medo decided to post to the world, to show them the positive side, and send the message that no matter what, the situation is, under any circumstances, we love life.”