Halimi gained popularity on social media when her family was forced to flee their home as Israel launched a military operation in the Gaza Strip following the October 7 attacks.
He gained more than a quarter million followers on Instagram and TikTok after posting videos detailing his life as a migrant in Gaza in Rafah and Khan Younis.
Halimy’s videos ranged from simple recipes made with limited ingredients and equipment to tutorial videos showing how to create content. In an interview last year, he said he made about $3 per clip he posted on social media. That was a lot of money in Gaza.
He posted his last video on Monday, hours before he was killed, in which he showed the tent he was living in and detailed what he had done that day.
Two Palestinian organizations that confirmed his death to the BBC said the deadly attack took place in a nearby street and that Halimy was injured by flying debris. He died the following day.
Spark, the Gaza charity where Halimi worked in the summer of 2023, confirmed his death to the BBC and praised his “ability to add beauty and glamour to wherever he was” in a note posted online.
“Muhammad, your kind spirit will be with us, and I believe you deserve a better world,” he added.
“May God have mercy on you, my beloved,” his sister Rahaf wrote in an Instagram post announcing his death. “May God accept you as a martyr.”
