A photograph showing two female Israeli soldiers posing beside a bound, blindfolded Palestinian young man has ignited widespread public fury across social media platforms after it spread virally online last week.
The image was originally published this Tuesday as part of a photo carousel on the personal Instagram account of Nikol Stelmashvski, an Israeli woman who had just completed her term of mandatory military service. In the photo, the two uniformed soldiers are seen smiling for the camera while standing next to the unidentified Palestinian, who sits on the ground with his head bowed. No clear details have been released about the exact date or location where the photo was captured.
Stelmashvski’s caption, written in Hebrew, framed the post as a reflection on wrapping up her military service, reading: “Two years and eight months, four wars… Thousands of memories, a million and one experiences. And here came the end of a chapter of my life that I will never forget.”
By Wednesday, amid a flood of angry and critical comments from users across the globe, the controversial photograph was removed from the Instagram carousel, and the account was switched to private status within a few hours of the backlash beginning. Even after the original post was taken down, hundreds of screengrabs of the image had already been saved and shared across alternative platforms, allowing the photo to continue circulating widely online.
Palestinian academic and prominent human rights advocate Ramy Abdu condemned the image in a post on X, writing: “Turning his humiliation into a moment of celebration.” Other social media users drew comparisons to the 2004 Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in Iraq, noting that global audiences were similarly horrified by images of Iraqi detainees being dehumanized by U.S. soldiers. One user, journalist Mohammad Alsaafin, wrote: “IDF revel in depravity and no one is holding Israel to account.” He added that the image required no contextual labels “and everyone will immediately know where it was taken and what country these women are from.”
This viral incident is not an isolated case, experts and activists note: since the outbreak of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, Israeli soldiers have repeatedly shared graphic content online depicting actions that human rights groups say may constitute war crimes. The range of content shared by active and recently discharged soldiers includes footage of troops celebrating as they destroy civilian infrastructure, including private family homes, community mosques, and university buildings. In one notable earlier incident, a soldier posted a photo that used a blindfolded Palestinian man as a prop to advertise the soldier’s private commercial business. Other images that have circulated show soldiers posing with stacks of cash looted from Palestinian homes in Gaza, and wearing women’s underwear stolen from displaced civilians’ residences.
Just one month prior to this latest controversy, an Israeli soldier sparked widespread backlash after posting a photo of a blindfolded, partially undressed Palestinian man lying in a stress position on a cot, his hands zip-tied behind his back and bound to a metal rod. The soldier’s caption simply read “Good morning” in Hebrew. That image, which was reposted by Palestinian activists, drew global condemnation and renewed calls for formal accountability for crimes against Palestinian detainees.
In response to this week’s viral photo, the Israel Defense Forces released a brief statement acknowledging that it had “identified the incident” and launched an internal command investigation. The statement added that “those involved will be dealt with in accordance with the findings that emerge.” However, data from independent war monitoring organization Action on Armed Violence casts doubt on the likelihood of meaningful consequences: an AOAV investigation published last year found that nearly 90 percent of all Israeli military investigations into allegations of soldier abuse against Palestinians launched since October 2023 have either been closed without action or concluded with no actionable findings.