Seven months into the war in Gaza, Mohammed Said al-Halimy began documenting his daily routine in earnest.
Mr. al-Halimy, known by his friends and online as Medo, already had a teenager’s knack for capturing sunsets, songs and life’s milestones in short video snippets. That life was fractured after Israeli bombs fell on Gaza in response to the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack, destroying his university and forcing him into a makeshift beach campsite.
As months of fighting ground into the summer, and his displacement became more entrenched, Mr. al-Halimy turned his phone camera to the surreal experience of everyday reality in dystopian circumstances.
“I wanted to show something positive, some resilience despite the daily suffering,” Mr. al-Halimy, 19, said in a July interview, adding that he hoped to capture an “unseen side of our lifestyle.”
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@medo_halimy via Instagram.
If you wonder what a day in a tent life looks like, let me show you. I said good morning to my “Little Mintita” and had a cup of coffee. Then I combed my hair and saw that my beard wasn’t looking great, so I had to line it up. And we’re looking clean. I then left to get some drinking water, and when I got back I watched TikToks on my phone with my ultra-fast Wi-Fi. But then I remembered I had to wash my polo shirt. I put my headphones on, filled the bucket with water, dipped it in, added some soap and started washing it. When I was done, I squeezed the water out of it, and I don’t know what they had to call this. We’ll just say “Da.” I cooked some lunch then and watched a movie, but I got so bored so I went to swim. Isn’t that beautiful?
Palestinians trapped in Gaza have been recording the war since it began, in often harrowing videos that have given a close-up view of the Israeli bombardment to millions of people worldwide. Many of their posts — raw, personal and at times graphic — went viral early in the conflict as traditional news media outlets struggled to get reporters into the blockaded enclave.