Kylie Jenner, 26, quickly deleted a message of support for Israel from her Instagram story after the deadly Hamas attacks. The reality star seemed to take down the post, which was reposted from he pro-Israel account, @StandWithUs, after she received a large amount of backlash.
“Now and always we stand with the people of Israel!” the post, which can be seen below, read along with an image of the Israeli flag. “SHARE if you stand with the people of Israel as they face one of the most frightening situations in many years.”
Within minutes of Kylie sharing the post, she started receiving responses that included pictures of Palestinian flags and calls to unfollow her. Although she deleted it within an hour, critics continued to flood social media pages with their negative opinions about the post. “Wtf @KylieJenner Everyone needs to unfollow #KylieJenner please !!!! #Palestine,” one person wrote. “It’s actually way worse that Kylie Jenner just deleted the Israel post. It shows a lack of knowledge and care, she just posted it to be talked about,” another shared.
Some users also expressed concern that Kylie’s pro-Israel post would cause tension between her and Bella Hadid, who is a known supporter of Palestine. “Kylie Jenner supporting Israel when her friend Bella Hadid is Palestinian is crazy,” one person posted. “Do these celebrities listen to each other when they talk? Like when Bella Hadid talks about Palestine and being Palestinian does Kylie Jenner know what that means?” another added.
The backlash toward Kylie and the post happened just hours after Hamas militants launched unprecedented attacks on Israel on Saturday. Thousands of rockets were fired in Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip, sadly killing hundreds of civilians. “We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a live speech shown on television. He also declared that “the enemy will pay an unprecedented price.”
As of Sunday, Gaza health officials reported that 230 Palestinians had been killed, with over 1,700 injured. Kylie has yet to reveal why she decided to delete the post.