A Palestinian social media influencer living in Gaza who praised the October 7 terror attack by Hamas on Israel has reportedly been shot dead. Saleh Aljafarawi, dubbed online as Mr FAFO, was said to have been killed in clashes between rival gangs and Hamas fighting over the weekend in the power vacuum left by the withdrawal of Israeli troops as part of the peace plan.
Aljafarawi grew to become a prominent figure online after the Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023, which he praised at the time. His following grew as he documented the subsequent war between Israel and Hamas which raged up until a few days ago now a peace plan has been put in place.
In a brutal twist, it appears Aljafarawi survived the war only to be killed in fighting between rival groups of Palestinians now vying for power in the territory.
Aljafarawi often filmed the results of Israeli bombardments during the conflict, showing himself sobbing during airstrikes. In the following months, he appeared in several viral videos where he allegedly impersonated a wounded patient, a doctor, a journalist, and a Hamas fighter.
During the conflict, the US activist group Students for Justice in Palestine posted an image of Aljafarawi on Instagram with the caption: “Death to the occupation. Death to Zionism. Death to collaborators.”
Aljafarawi was reportedly killed during an armed clash between Hamas and the rival Doghmush group in Gaza City on Sunday. He is said to have suffered a fatal head wound. According to anti-Hamas activist Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, he was accompanying Hamas’ Saham unit, possibly as a cameraman.
Pro-Israel activists had dubbed Aljafarawi with the derogatory name Mr FAFO, to mean ‘”f**k around and find out”.
Alkhatib said: “Controversial Gaza activist, derogatorily called ‘Mr FAFO’ due to his performative antics and well known for his support of Hamas.
“Saleh Aljafarawi, was killed today by unknown assailants.”
The Palestinian-led protest group Within Our Lifetime, based in New York, said the influencer was “murdered” by “Zionist collaborators in Gaza after having a target on his back by the occupation for months”.
The group shared part of what is believed to be Aljafarawi’s last will and testament, in which he told followers: “I urge you to hold fast to the resistance, to the path we walked, and to the cause we believed in.
“We have known no other way for ourselves, nor found any meaning in life except by remaining steadfast upon it.”
Rama Duwaji, the wife of New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, shared a post about the “beloved” influencer on Instagram Stories where he was pictured wearing a press jacket alongside four broken-heart emojis.
