Pro-Israeli influencer Natalia Fadeev posted an Instagram photo of herself holding a gun in full combat uniform on a beach in what appears to be Gaza, prompting vociferous backlash on Instagram.
“IDF beach episode 🪖☀️🌊⚔️” reads the emoji-filled caption of the post, with Gaza tagged in the location. Fadeev didn’t respond to questions about where she was serving or if she was in an active-duty combat unit.
Posts on her account, though, which are filled with coquettish, pro-Israel thirst traps, attempt to paint the picture that she’s currently advancing with the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). The sword emoji in her caption is possibly an allusion to Operation Iron Swords, the name of the current IDF operation in Gaza which has left at least 20,000 Palestinians dead since a Hamas attack on Israel killed around 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians.
Israeli forces have been intensifying their battle to take over Khan Yunis, a beachside city in the Southern Gaza Strip in recent days, according to the Israeli Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.
Commenters on Instagram reacted angrily to Fadeev posting a smiling picture on the seaside.
“What a beautiful stolen beach,” commented one sardonically.
“Yea have you ever considered that taking glamor shots on the beach of a war zone is in poor taste?” wrote another. “I volunteered in the IDF. We never had a sidearm I doubt and kravi outside of SF has them… Definitely no makeup and did you seriously trim your pants to end at the boot. I’m sure you’re doing your part as the moral brigade but just stop. Its disgusting when the soldiers who actually fight probably haven’t brushed their teeth in days.”
Fadeev posted a series of stories recently detailing what appears to be an IDF advance into the Gaza Strip, including sharing her post, saying she’d have to come back in a bikini.
“I’ll have to recreate this photo in a bikini once it’s all over…their shore is so beautiful! they don’t even deserve it fr,” she captioned the beachside post in her story.
Fadeev, who also goes by the screenname Gun Waifu, is a member of the Israeli Defense Forces military police reservists according to her bio, and she’s no stranger to controversy, reportedly having a secondary career as an OnlyFans model
In 2021 she went viral for TikToks showing her dancing in uniform and posting accusations that Palestinians were faking funerals.
“When they tried to destroy your nation but you ended up having one of the most powerful armies,” she wrote in one TikTok where she also claimed to have been serving as a military police officer for three years in the IDF.
The Daily Dot previously reported on Fadeev’s use of thirst traps, where she posted claims she was too hot to do warm crimes.
“Loving that your insta account is going to end up in a war crimes tribunal,” one user posted on the latest beachside photo.
